|
Morocco agriculture is characterized by highly efficient agricultural practices. This has been necessitated by the scarcity of land suitable for crop cultivation.
Morocco agriculture is handicapped by the lack of arable land in the country. Approximately 22% of the total land area is fit for crop cultivation. The Sahara desert occupies a major part of the land of the country. More than 40% of the arable land is used for cereal production. 7% is devoted to plantation crops like almonds, olives, grapes, dates and citrus. 3% of the land is employed for pulse cultivation. Agriculture in Morocco also involves the harvesting of industrial crops like sugarcane, cotton and sugar beets. The average Moroccan farmer has less than 12 acres of land for productive farming practices. Moroccan agriculture contributed to approximately 16% of GDP of Morocco.
The major export crops of the Kingdom of Morocco are vegetables and citrus fruits. Other export crops are barley, wheat, sugar beets, tomatoes, sugarcane, olives, oranges, potatoes, peanuts and garbanzos. Sunflowers also form another agricultural export product of Morocco. Dams and other irrigation engineering projects provide water to required parts of the desert country. These water channels help to offset the aftereffects of drought in Moroccan crop production.
|
