According to Agriculture Minister Ahmed El Bouari, the number of cattle and sheep in Morocco has decreased by 38% since the last census was conducted nine years ago. This is due to successive droughts.
Six years of droughts in Morocco have caused massive job losses and forced the country to accelerate its desalination plan.
El Bouari, told reporters that rainfall this year was 53% less than the average for the past 30 years.
He said that there was not enough pasture to feed livestock, and consequently the meat production dropped. This led to a rise in imports of beef and red meat.
Morocco’s budget for 2025 includes a suspension of import duties and the value-added tax on cattle, camels, sheep, and lambs, as well as red beef, to maintain prices in the domestic market.
He said that so far in this year, Morocco imported 124,000 sheep and 21,000 cattle, as well as 704 tons red meat.
El Bouari reported that the dams of Doukala, Souss Massa and other key farming areas were only 2% and 15% filled respectively. El Bouari said that the national dam filling percentage had fallen to 26%, as drinking water for cities was given priority over farming.
He said that the planted area for soft wheat, barley, and durum was up to 2.6 million ha, from 2.4 millions hectares in 2012.
El Bouari stated that the wheat production depends “on the evolution in rainfall until the end of march”.
Morocco’s soft wheat, barley, and durum production dropped by 43% last year due to drought. (Reporting and editing by Christina Fincher.)
Source: Reuters/ Picture Credit : Morocco World News
