How young growers from Morocco are outsmarting climate change

Thanks to a drip irrigation system, which delivers water directly to the plants’ roots, Batrah has branched out into melon, pea and bean production on his 10-hectare (24.7-acre) olive farm, roughly tripling his revenues. PHOTO: COURTESY

Standing amid rows of healthy fava bean plants, El Badaoui Abdelatif explains how his team of young technicians has helped farmers in rural Sidi Badhaj, at the foot of the Atlas Mountains, grow more olives — and earn more money — despite a drying climate.

Pruning, the use of electronic equipment and more precise irrigation have increased yields from 20kg (44 lb) per tree to 100kg or more. And the quality of the oil from the olives has improved because farmers take them for pressing within 24 hours of harvest rather than storing them for a month or two, as in the past.

But a boost to the income of local farmers — 90 per cent of whom have adopted the new techniques — isn’t the only benefit.

The work performed by Abdelatif’s team of seven men and three women, replicated in other municipalities of Al Haouz province, south of the city of Marrakesh, means fewer young people are migrating to urban areas in search of work.

“I thought about leaving for the city too,” said the 30-year-old. “But with all the training and equipment we have received, the situation is more stable for young people here, our quality of life is better, and I don’t think about going anymore.”

The services of his team — which advises on tree health, helps with the harvest, and lends out modern equipment such as battery-powered pruning shears and vibrating tree rakes to pick olives — are in high demand among local farmers, he added.

Khalid Batrah, 42, is one of the farmers participating in the project to develop agricultural value chains, backed by the Moroccan government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a UN agency that supports rural people.

Thanks to a drip irrigation system, which delivers water directly to the plants’ roots, Batrah has branched out into melon, pea and bean production on his 10-hectare (24.7-acre) olive farm, roughly tripling his revenues.

Putting in drip irrigation — with the support of a government subsidy — improved his harvests in only a year, he said. He now employs three permanent workers and as many as 100 people during the olive harvest.

He has recently applied to a commercial bank for credit to install solar panels to power a water pump.

All these efforts, taking place across some 9,600 farms in the province, are aimed at helping farmers in Morocco’s arid regions improve their olive, apple and mutton production, and cope better with climate change.

Models forecast a decrease in annual rainfall of between 15 and 52 percent in the North African country as temperatures rise this century, according to IFAD.

But Batrah believes his farm in Sidi Badhaj is suffering less than others from the decline in rainfall already being felt in the area.

“We now have a micro-climate here,” he said. “It is more gentle, thanks to the greenery we have created.” Chakib Nemmaoui, IFAD’s Morocco programme officer, said the five-year value-chain project, which began in 2013, has enabled farmers to increase yields, commercialise their crops and access markets, while adapting to climate change.

“They have their own approach to adaptation, but we try to develop and improve the way they are doing it,” he said.

Higher up in the Atlas Mountains, another aim of the project is to protect the steep slopes from erosion, which deposits sediment in rivers, silting up the North African country’s reservoirs and shrinking water availability. In the rural community of Amghras, nearly 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) above sea level, the gullies and ravines carved into the mountainside show how easily the red earth can be washed away.