Agricultural policy: implementation, impacts and effectiveness

Authors:	Ahmed El Aich, Zoritza Kiresiewa
Coordinating authors:	Inma Alados, Ruta Landgrebe, Sandra Nauman
Editors:	Alexandros Kandelapas, Jane Brandt

Editor's note 20Mar14: Source D242-5.

Agricultural policy: description

Since independence, agriculture has been at the heart of development policy in Morocco. Initially, the goal was to modernize Moroccan agriculture by launching several operations, including the operation fertilizers, seeds and plowing. This phase was followed by more intense agricultural activities conducted until the late 1970s, promoting large-scale irrigation to achieve the "Million hectare". Export crops were promoted alongside and the substitution of imported food products. The third phase concerned the rainfed areas, which benefited successively from the Integrated Development Project (IDP) and Enhancement Projects in "Bour" (PMVB). The last project - the "Plan Maroc Vert" - was launched in 2008.

Operation Labour Policy. This policy is structured around three components: mechanization, consolidation, and management.

Million Hectares Policy. The government sought to improve productivity and expand irrigation in order to achieve "one million hectares of irrigated land". The state committed to building a dam each year and ensure the equipment to irrigate for 15,000 - 24,000 hectares per year. In addition, the state executed internal work, imposed crop rotation and cultivation techniques and supported farmers through irrigation perimeters and legal and economic incentives.

The Agricultural Investment Code, enacted in 1969, provided budgetary support of this policy. During 1968-1972, more than 40% of the agricultural budget was directed to the irrigated sector even though it accounted for only 10% of the arable land. Irrigated area reached 880,200 ha in 2000 and infrastructure includes more than a hundred dam.

The policy has had remarkable results, including the reduction of the devastating impacts of severe droughts, increases of farmers income, reduction of the rural exodus, and improved access to basic services. Deficiencies are also present: results with regard to modernization have been limited and the dam policy was widely criticized for the differences in consequences it generated. Thus, by marginalizing rainfed areas, the state contributed to increasing the duality of agricultural development and consequently to the impoverishment of large segments of the rural population.

Agricultural Investment Code (CIA). The Dahir No. 1-69-25 Agricultural Investment Code (1969) aimed to develop the natural potential of the country to meet its needs in vegetable and animal products, to increase the income of the farmers and to contribute to the general development of the economy. The CIA distinguished between the irrigated sector (equipment and valorization) and the rainfed area (creation of a global network of sanitation, drainage work) and dealt with a variety of issues such as agricultural mechanization, provision of assistance to increase productivity, protection of animal health, research and training, land conservation and organization of markets, rules relating to land consolidation, modifications in cropping patterns and water rates. The CIA also lists a variety of instruments as aid to agricultural investments: incentives and subsidies, bank loans, technical assistance, material and utilities of the public sector, especially the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform.

The CIA has become the real legal system governing irrigated agriculture. It is usually presented as a contract between farmers and the state, defining their mutual rights and duties.

With regard to rangelands, the Dahir of 1969 defines the state involvement in the management of collective rangelands: under decrees proposed by the Minister of Agriculture (after consultation with the Ministers of the Interior and Finance), special areas including collective land may be designated for "pastoral perimeters improvement" in order to halt degradation and improve upon traditional management. These schemes may include infrastructure works (water points, nurseries, runways, terminals, ditches, markers, dips, silos, feeding centers, animal shelters, housing guards), the regeneration and enrichment of pastures (work conserving water and soil, fertilizers and amendments, seeding or planting shrubs or herbaceous forage species, elimination of harmful plant species and establishment of shelter belts). In addition, associations (contracts to split benefits between contractors) for livestock are prohibited.

Law Number 33 –94 (Perimeters of promotion of non irrigated crops). The relative failure of pastoral perimeters prompted the state to change its strategy for bour, (i.e. rainfed zones located outside of irrigation perimeters and sanitation dry areas). Law 33 of 1994 defined a new framework for implementing projects known as "PMVB" in order to decrease disparities between favourable and unfavourable areas. The strategy is based around:

• provision of basic information;
• creation of adapted technologic packages;
• fostering operational dialog, focused around the participation of shepherds from conception to planning and implementation;
• established of autonomous management and planning by populations concerned;
• appropriate guidance and supervision of the pastoral profession.

Once a perimeter boundary enhancement is made, the state carries out an operations plan. These operations may include: 1) the clearance and improvement of land ownership structures, 2) the development work and the internal and external equipment of agricultural properties and 3) the mobilization of extension and technical support necessary at both the production process as well as at the level of the valorization of agricultural products.

This law has opened a new approach to state intervention and development bour areas, namely:

• identification of and localised intervention in rainfed perimeters;
• integrated implementation of rural development to intensify the development of land and increase investment at the farm level; and
• participation of affected populations in decision making but also in investment in farm level as well as their involvement in actions in a contractual framework.

Under the Act, around 200 perimeters rainfed development have been identified in various agro-ecological zones of Morocco, but only 40 projects have been finalized. Constraints are related to bureaucratic procedures, the difficulty of involving different stakeholders, the lack of jurisdiction or the reluctance of some stakeholders, while other constraints are at the rigidity of financial procedures.

As far as rangelands, the law aims to improve pastoral perimeters within the context of the ethnic communities by establishing cooperatives of breeders to implement actions of pastoral water facilities, improved herd management, rehabilitation of the vegetation and the organization of its conservation management. The strategy also guarantees farmers access to markets and credit.

For the implementation of development projects in pastoral zones, different constraints arise (absence of technological packages, insufficient management, lack of financial resources). In fact, out of a total of 15 PMVB having a component "pastoral", 11 PMVB experienced blockages due to conflicts between beneficiaries of the bounds paths and rights of use, refusal populations on achieving improvements of pastures. They opt instead to cultivate and own a farm while it is pastoral land.

Plan Maroc Vert (PMV) (Green Morocco Plan) was adopted in April 2008 in order to rehabilitate agriculture as a tool of growth and the fight against poverty with a view to the year 2020. This new land policy aims to achieve private management of public lands, to establish conditions for promoting aggregation and public-private partnerships, to continue structural reform and to accelerate securitization. The PMV is built upon seven principles.

1. Agriculture as the main driver of growth in the next 10 to 15 years.
2. The model for the organization of agriculture should be aggregation, meaning the creation of a win-win partnership between upstream and downstream productive commercial and/or industrial areas.
3. Growth of Moroccan agriculture shall take place without exclusion or discrimination, addressing all types of agriculture. This includes a modern agriculture, localized in irrigated and favorable bour, (20% of cultivated area, highly modern and productive) as well as traditional agriculture and food (located at the unfavorable mountain areas and oases, occupying 80% of arable land).
4. Promotion of private investment.
5. Adoption of a contractual approach to achieve PMV.
6. Sustainable development of Moroccan agriculture.
7. Agricultural sector reform.

The PMV established the novel strategy based on two pillars and base of horizontal reforms. Pillar I aims to develop modern agriculture with high added value, be competitive and responsive to market rules, centering around new "aggregation models". Pillar II aims to support the small and medium agriculture enterprises with an approach oriented towards fighting poverty and improving the income of the most vulnerable farmers (nearly 560,000 farms), particularly in disadvantaged areas. For the two pillars of this strategy, the reform of the sector is of paramount importance. Horizontal reforms cover land, water and taxation.

The PMV plans to invest 147 billion dirhams for 1,506 projects, spread over a decade. The first sector plan of PMV occurs at the regional level with the preparation of 16 Regional Agricultural Plans (RAP).

Several criticisms can be made of the PMV. Firstly, it overstates the role of investment and claims that agriculture would be a "sector like any other". The pillar I-model ("big farm”) focuses on large farmers, aggravating land problems and destabilizing the balance of predominantly family farming systems. Secondly, the PMV production model is highly intensive and appears to be destructive to the environment and natural resources. In addition, production-level choices show little desire to safeguard the food security.

For the most part, aggregation is seen with scepticism, as it maintains the illusion that the land barrier may be circumvented, but also for its claim to be easily "duplicable". In addition, the plan does not address the sudden and unexpected arrival of cold weather, resulting in disastrous damages. In 2011, the Word Bank started a new project “Integrating Climate Change in the Implementation of the PMV”.

Agricultural Policy: impacts

Operation Labour Policy. The state provided farmers tractors through the work centers. In the Timahdit area, this ploughing operation has encouraged the development of land for agriculture and the the reduction of rangelands. have a strongly negative impact. Ploughing resulted in the development of motorization (trucks, tractors). Mechanization "solved" the issue of water availability: in pastures that were previously used only until the month of April (when animal needs can be covered by alimentary water in tender plants), tractors and trucks provided water (150 to 200 dh for tanks holding 3000 liters of water) increasing the continuous grazing pressure.

Million hectares Policy had no impact on the study area. Irrigation in the Middle Atlas is still done in a traditional manner and the conflict between upstream and downstream remains. On rangelands, the impact was neutral if not negative since there was a break down in the agreements among tribes regarding the reciprocal use of rangelands. Most of the tribes with land in the lowland area switched to agriculture, reducing available rangelands. Another negative impact of this policy is the development of motorization (trucks, tractors). The development of motorization switched the regional trend: instead of sheep going to the resources (feed and water), the resource is delivered to the animals.

Agricultural Investment Code (CIA). Since irrigation was not developed in the study area, the only impact of the CIA was the possibility of getting bank loans by Timahdit for agricultural development. Breeders contracted loans for purchasing feed concentrate for their cattle and for financing the crop, resulting in more widespread usage of concentrated feed. As a consequence, grazing animals changed from lean to fatty and had high requirements. The use of concentrates increased the period that yearling animals use rangelands, which in turn increased the grazing pressure.

Several groups of sheep breeders were created in the Middle Atlas since 1984 but only two remain. The policy also included the creation of "the Timahdit pastoral perimeter", planned on the Western range management style (fenced, divided in pastures with physical infrastructures such as roads and water points).

Law Number 33-94 (Perimeters of promotion of non irrigated crops). The delay in policies for rainfed areas has resulted in the degradation of resources and in a number of situations contributing to desertification. This law is the only policy that deals with the study area. However, most of the projects developed dealt with agriculture. As far as rangelands were concerned, two projects were developed in the study area. Their impact was reduced to building and purchasing equipment; no work was accomplished regarding the rehabilitation of rangelands. The main reason for this poor result was the absence of a participative approach in implementing the two projects (World Bank and French Agency for Development).

Plan Maroc Vert (PMV) (Green Morocco Plan). In the Timahdit area, the PMV promoted drip irrigation and the cultures of high added value crops, such as gardening and horticulture. According to stakeholders from the rural community in Timahdit, the policy of putting emphasis on agriculture in this area will have the consequence of reducing livestock numbers over the next 30 to 40 years. As result, people in the study area are willing to have their own dams built to benefit of their water. The intensification strategy raises question about the appropriateness of the Plan for the mountainous regions.

Agricultural Policy: effectiveness

Law Number 33-94 (Perimeters of promotion of non irrigated crops). This law has opened a new approach to state intervention and the development of bour areas, but results of the Law 33-94 have not been very encouraging. The law provides a framework and serves as a tool for coherent and integrated legal measures to be implemented for the development of agriculture and rural areas (including bour) but implementation encounters difficulties.

Code des Investissements Agricoles. Although its objectives included "To curb pasture degradation and to ensure its recovery”, in 1994 only 6 out of a total of 33 schemes identified for the improvement of pastoral perimeters were delineated, representing approximately 180,000 hectares in total. One of the 6 planned perimeters is in the Timahdit area. The failure of these planned perimeters was mainly due to lack of financial participation of pastoralist beneficiaries. Another constraint has been the difficulty in organise farmers into cooperatives (feeding centers) and to sustain their proper functioning.

 

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