The state of land, water and plant nutrition resources in Morocco
Morocco covers a land area of 71 million ha and has an estimated population of 28 million in 1998. The country is divided into four main landscapes: the mountain areas of Rif and Atlas, the central plateau, the plains of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast, the Saharan areas.
Economic and social development in Morocco is mostly based in agricultural activity. This sector is the source of income for about half of the population and provides jobs to more than half the working population. It contributes one-third to domestic exports and accounts for more than 20 percent of GDP.
Of the total area of 71 million hectares, Morocco has 20 million hectares of sloping areas and 8.5 million hectares suitable for cultivation, of which 1.35 million hectares are potentially irrigable. In Morocco the problems of salinity are widespread, particularly in the irrigated areas (intensive agriculture).
In 1986, the Ministry of Agriculture surveyed the extent of stony lands which could be reclaimed and used for intensive agriculture. Two million ha are stony, constraining or inhibiting machinery use and reducing yields.
A survey in all agricultural areas of Morocco by the Ministry of Agriculture in1995 showed that 0.74 million ha, more than 8 percent of the land suitable of agriculture, are infested by weeds, principally by jujube.
The average annual rainfall amounts to about 150 billion m³ per year, but may fluctuate between 50 and 400 billion m³. Potentially usable water was 830 m³ per inhabitant and per year in 1996 and will be 411 m³ per inhabitant and per year in 2020.
The average consumption of fertilizers in the last 5 years was about 720 000 tonnes/year, while the requirement would be 2,5 million tonnes/year.
The main current problems are:
In Morocco, there is limited information about water and wind erosion and other problems such as stoniness, desertification, salinity, waterlogging, soil compaction.
According to a Ministry of Agriculture report (1995), 5.5 million hectares of sloping area are subject to water erosion.
Wind erosion is affecting soils and vegetation. To reduce this problem, farmers are planting trees as barriers to reduce the erosive velocity of wind. These conditions are met in arid and Saharan areas of southern Morocco, which are characterized by low and variable precipitation and frequent droughts, and high winds and high temperatures wind erosion also cause damage to infrastructure in irrigated areas such as Agadir.
The urban population in Morocco is about 54 percent in 2000. The urban population has been increasing rapidly, from 3.4 million inhabitants in 1960 to 8.7 in 1982 and 15.6 million in 1999. It is estimated that the urban population will be 18.7 million in 2007. Uncontrolled urbanization has led to shanty towns, which are constructed on fertile land near the big towns. Even urban planning trends to focus on productive agricultural land in level areas.
An inventory of soil studies by the cadastral administration in 1993 has listed information about the kind, date of realization of the soil study, the location and extent. The studies cover about 10 millions hectares at 1/50 000 and 1/100 000 scales, and about two million hectares at 1/20 000 scale.
Several plans and strategies give priority to land and water resources:
In cooperation between MADREF and the FAO's Regional office, a Soils and Terrain database was produced at a scale of 1:5 million, on the basis of the manual by ISRIC (1995).
Several priority actions have been recommended:
The full Morocco country report is available at the Gateway Web site:
http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGL/sw1wpnr/sw1wpnr.htm
