Agriculture and rural development for inclusive growth and food security in Morocco
This working paper (PDF) from Brookings Institution states that the objective of inclusive growth is linked to that of food and nutrition security. The Government of Morocco is implementing a rural development strategy with two pillars: the first pillar focuses on large modern farms, and the second pillar focuses on smallholder and family farming. The author argues that the twin goals of inclusive growth and food security would be best achieved by emphasizing the importance of the second pillar, and by adopting an approach that includes: (i) increasing food reserves and using financial markets for risk reduction, (ii) improving the linkage of smallholders and family farmers to markets and help them increase domestic food production while raising their incomes, and (iii) supporting the development of independent producer organizations that provide voice for smallholders and also help them gain better access to input and output markets. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section reviews political economy developments in Morocco, and how the country was impacted by the Arab Spring. The second section describes key challenges of agriculture and rural development in Morocco. The third section discusses possible strategies to deal with those challenges, and the fourth concludes.