São Paulo – Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture announced that the country’s agricultural production is expected to increase in 2021. The Ministry said that the establishment of fall crops experienced good momentum towards the end of 2020, newspaper Morocco World News reported. Pictured above, Moroccan picking saffron flowers in the Southwest region.
The period was marked by a predominance of mechanical tillage, which covered nearly 94% of the cultivated area. To date, the total area sown amount to 4.76 hectares, including 9% irrigated, dominated by cereals (86%), fodder (10%), and legumes (4%).
The Ministry said that the area sown with fall cereals amounted to 4.1 million hectares on January 8, 2021 and should reach 4.3 million hectares at the end of the sowing period. The area is made up of 44% soft wheat, 34% barley, and 22% durum wheat, the ministry said.
“The pace of cereal sowing has accelerated to reach 3 million hectares of sowing in one month following the rainy period at the end of November and December,” the statement said. The agriculture forecasts demonstrate the rapidity of intervention thanks to the improvement of mechanical capacities and the modernization of the national mechanical park.
Fodder crops cover an area of 500,000 hectares, 35% of which is irrigated against 480000 hectares during the previous campaign, up 4%. Legumes cover 168,000 hectares, 6% of which is irrigated, against 171,000 hectares during the previous campaign on the same date, down 2%. The main cultivated species are peas, broad beans, lentils, field beans, among others.
The forecasts are in line with several studies, showing that the 2020-2021 agriculture season will help Morocco’s economy recover from the crisis due to COVID-19 and drought.
The World Bank forecasts a 4% growth in Morocco’s economy this year thanks to an increase in agricultural production. The past few weeks witnessed heavy rainfalls, which will help the agriculture season after drought in the 2019-2020 season.
Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP) forecasts the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to record a 4.6% growth in 2021 compared to the 7% recession it saw in 2020. The HCP forecasts the unemployment rate to decline from 12.8% in 2020 to 11.1% in 2021.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
