I have referred in passing in other postings to Morocco's Green Plan - or Maroc Vert. It was introduced three years ago and is being enthusiastically persued by all the institutions of agriculture in the country.
It's being promoted as a domestic response to Morocco's need to import much of its food and the fact that 80% of the county's land area is arid or desert. But, of course, it is also a response to the developing world food crisis and an attempt to improve food security.
One of the best examples of this witnessed by the FW Farm Study Tour was at the city of Fes. The Chamber of Agriculture there was highly organised and its officials were only too happy to share with us what they are doing.
Crops grown in the region around the city include cereals and legumes as well as olives, top fruit, vegetables and capers. But only one seventh of the land is irrigated and this limits potential to increase yields and efficiency - which are among the objectives of the plan.
The Chamber officials told us that the average yield of wheat in the area was just 2t/ha but that the best farmers who used fertilisers and crop protection chemicals achieved 8t/ha. Predictably their ambition was to raise the average and they hoped it could be achieved by culture change - as well as by the intorduction of more irrigation from the state funded reservoirs built virtually every year.
Clearly the officials were pre-occupied by the problems they were having in changing the culture of small farmers who were resisting change. They laid on a magnificent reception for our party and questioned us on how we would tackle the problem. Maybe they thought we must have faced similar difficulties after the 2nd World War. We put forward a few suggestions and promised to think further on what might work in this very different country.
They certainly deserve to succeed given their determination and enthusiasm.