Agriculture is of undeniable importance in the Kingdom of Morocco. Its economic and social weight, its affiliation to the rural world, as well as the diversity of its functions in food, socio-economic and environmental aspects, make it a natural locomotive of development and economic growth. Aware of the country's remarkable agro-ecological assets, the Moroccan government has long affirmed its desire to boost this sector, which has been the result of various agricultural policies deployed. These efforts have made it possible to record a multitude of achievements, notably through the diversification of plant production, the strengthening of value chains, localized irrigation and also the development of organic farming.

The project on "Biodiversity Conservation and Mitigation of Land Degradation through Adaptive Management of Agricultural Heritage Systems" was rightly carried out according to an agro-ecological vision by improving the conservation and sustainable management of five oasis systems in Morocco, with a focus on strengthening the role of these systems in household food security, but also and above all the preservation of agricultural biodiversity.

As a reminder, this project was set up by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests (MAPMDREF), with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and aims to consolidate and support five pilot agro-ecological oasis sites: Imilchil- Amellago of the High Atlas Mountains, Ait Mansour in the valleys of the Anti Atlas, Akka, Assa and Figuig located in pre-Saharan areas, whose work carried out so far have achieved remarkable results in the context of the agroecology, particularly in terms of:

Preservation and enhancement of agrobiodiversity

Surveys were conducted at each of the sites to inventory 144 local varieties, 57 of which were well characterized. A regulatory framework for seed development of local varieties has been developed and submitted to the country's competent authorities and local seed production, storage and distribution network has been established at each of the five sites. Thus, there has been a strengthening of local seed systems, which represents, in itself, a considerable basis for the development of agroecology and organic farming.

Development of sustainable water and land management practices

The training was provided for the farmers of the project sites and their supervising technicians. The number of beneficiaries is about 700, of which 30% are women, coming from more than 56 villages and representing more than 28 associations and 40 cooperatives in all the sites. These training courses aimed at improving skills in terms of promoting agroecological approaches, had covered various topics, such as organic farming techniques and site certification or techniques of seed production and conservation and participatory breeding to improve local varieties and preserve a broad genetic base for in situ conservation;

Valorization of local products through organic farming certification

Efforts also focused on building the capacity of local actors to develop labelled local products. There has also been the implementation of traceability systems for labelled organic products, the management of the documentation of the value chain, the use of the label, packaging and marketing strategies. In all, 100 date producers, 50 apple producers, 50 organic grain producers and 100 organic wool producers took part in these trainings.

Labelling the territories

The project has conducted several studies including hydro-agricultural development, sustainable land management and landscape management study. The exploitation of the data collected on the sites made it possible to elaborate the advocacy documents for their registration as SIPAM. Two oasis sites are now registered as SIPAM and two others are in the process of being finalized.

Dissemination of results

The project has a documentary collection resulting from the consultations carried out on the intervention sites, for example relating to sensitization on organic farming and composting in the pit or reports on the development of organic farming, conservation of agrobiodiversity, sustainable management of water and land and the valorization of local product.