Morocco invests US$75M to expand cereal irrigation and improve harvest stability

MOROCCO – Morocco has stepped up efforts to improve cereal production after launching a 700 million Moroccan dirham project worth about US$75 million (700 million Moroccan dirhams) to expand supplemental irrigation in the Dar Khrofa area of Larache Province.

The Ministry of Agriculture launched the project on July 18 as part of the country’s wider plan to protect cereal farming from repeated drought. The hydro agricultural project will cover 5,000 hectares across eight municipalities and is expected to benefit more than 7,000 farmers.

The investment forms part of Morocco’s national supplemental irrigation program, which started in 2025 and aims to extend the practice to almost 1 million hectares of cereal and legume crops by 2030.

Supplemental irrigation gives crops small amounts of water when rainfall falls below crop needs during key growth stages such as emergence, flowering and grain filling. Unlike full irrigation systems, the method only provides extra water during dry periods to help protect crop yields.

Research by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) shows that supplemental irrigation can increase cereal yields to as much as four tonnes per hectare under limited water conditions, compared to about one tonne per hectare without the practice.

The national program has two parts. The first focuses on about 500,000 hectares in areas that already have irrigation potential. It includes building water storage facilities that can supply two or three irrigation cycles during critical crop stages while helping farmers obtain irrigation equipment.

The second part covers another 500,000 hectares where new hydro agricultural infrastructure will bring water to farmland and increase the area that can receive supplemental irrigation.

The program comes as Morocco continues to face large swings in cereal harvests because of changing weather. During the 2023 to 2024 season, one of the country’s driest periods, cereal production reached about 3.5 million tonnes. In stronger rainfall years, production has exceeded 11 million tonnes.

Wheat and barley remain central to Morocco’s food system, supplying households, food processors and livestock producers. However, local production still falls short of demand. TradeMap data shows Morocco imported 6.5 million tonnes of wheat worth about US$1.8 billion in 2025.

While supplemental irrigation can help improve harvests, its future growth will depend on available water supplies and continued investment in water storage and distribution systems. Morocco will also need to manage its limited water resources carefully as it expands irrigation across more farming areas.

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