Monitoring of the Project to Convert Cereal Production into Olive Plantations in the Province of Tetouan (Northern Morocco)

Abstract

The agricultural sector occupies an important economic and social position in Morocco. In this sense, in recent years our country has adopted a new strategy for the agricultural sector called the "Green Morocco Plan". This plan is based on two pillars, the first is that which provides agriculture with high added value, high productivity, and competitiveness, the second is that which offers solidarity-based agriculture, based on the fight against poverty, increasing the income of small farmers, particularly in disadvantaged areas (such as unfavourable stock areas, mountains or oases, plains and plateaus in semi-arid regions). In our present study, we are particularly interested in the project to convert 760 ha of cereal crops into olive groves in the province of Tetouan. On the one hand, all stages of olive tree planting in cereal crops were monitored, as well as a comparison of yields, area, income, productivity and employment before and after the project was carried out. And on the other hand, an analysis of the various positive (social, economic and environmental) and negative (ecological) impacts of the project on the rural population in the province of Tetouan and on the environment in general. On the contrary, this project encountered several constraints, including natural, economic and social constraints.