Morocco Launches Agricultural Mapping to Combat Urban Sprawl

Faced with the phenomenon of the loss of agricultural land, the Ministry of Agriculture is proposing its solution. It is a matter of establishing a regional agricultural map. The choice made on the Souss-Massa region is explained by the "strong pressure on high-potential agricultural lands and the major projects they host".

To materialize this project, the Ministry of Agriculture has already launched a call for tenders for the realization of a study aimed at developing the agricultural map of the Souss-Massa region.

Several objectives are targeted by this operation, namely, to inventory and analyze what exists in terms of data, procedures and information systems, and to complete the missing data, in order to have a dashboard for monitoring the state of agricultural land at the regional level. Ultimately, the agricultural land will be classified into 3 categories: high-potential agricultural land to be protected, medium-potential agricultural land to be preserved and low-potential agricultural land to be urbanized.

A real economic engine of the kingdom, the Souss-Massa region, whose plain in particular generates considerable added value, has a large workforce and stimulates the agri-food industry. Several products are developed there such as saffron, dates, henna, roses and argan, a niche that is mainly intended for export.