The Green Morocco Plan in Boudnib: Examining Effects on Rural Livelihoods

Abstract

In southeastern Morocco, irrigated agriculture is expanding rapidly in a desert area formerly characterized by oasis agriculture and livestock grazing. The 2008 Green Morocco Plan (GMP) is fueling this expansion with incentives encouraging agricultural growth and foreign investment. Despite the GMP’s green, poverty fighting claims, job opportunities are low-paying and unreliable and water supply is decreasing. Outsider investors and farmers benefit from free groundwater and cheap local labor, leaving locals to deal with the long-term ecological damage. This research utilizes a mixed methods approach including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, household surveys, and a roundtable discussion. It examines GMP implementation in Boudnib as a continuation of historical, state-managed water policies that emphasize technological fixes and ignore associated social and environmental costs. It calls for action on the part of those in power to prevent the deepening of existing inequalities and threats to the livelihoods and environment of already vulnerable populations.

Water Scarcity and Work Constraints in Semi-Arid Agricultural Regions: Current Challenges and Future Intervention Strategies

“…In addition, it has also to be mentioned that our paper needs to address the specific case of highly capitalized farms, with intensive investments from newcomer players, often encouraged by public loans and subsidies. These farms have been identified as actors amplifying water scarcity and reducing value distribution to local populations [44]. Therefore, in order to get a broader picture of the actual water uses and work remuneration at a given waterscape, additional research efforts would be needed, encompassing larger samples of farms, and relying on successive years follow-up, to integrate the inter-annual climate variations and their effects on farming practices and incomes' generation for various categories of actors involved in the agricultural sector.…”

Assessing Groundwater Quality and Diagnosing Nitrate Pollution in the Sidi Allal Region: A GIS-Based Approach Utilizing the Groundwater Pollution Index

“…Groundwater resources in Morocco are facing increasing threats from anthropogenic activities, particularly those related to agriculture. The intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture can lead to the contamination of groundwater, which can have serious consequences for human health and the environment [10].…”

Making sense of on-going dynamics and innovations in oases and newly irrigated areas of North African arid regions: towards more sustainable development pathways

“…Alongside the age-old oasis irrigation systems, newly irrigated areas began emerging from the 1980s in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia (hereafter North Africa). They emerged from farmers' private initiatives or in the framework of public policies (Amichi et al, 2020;Daoudi et al, 2021;De Haas, 2006;Elder, 2022;Mekki et al, 2013). Saharan agriculture "… has conquered new lands, has renewed its methods, and presents itself as a vast pioneer front, multiform and multi-local" (Côte, 2022).…”