onto the backs of waiting donkeys, with visible
pride and purpose.
In the late morning, we drove to a nearby town for
further tree dissemination. There, I asked a handful
of farmers about the effects of climate change on
their livelihoods. In response, one man named Mus-
tafa said that he has noticed a precipitous drop in
rainfall, leading to reduced land quality. This dearth
of rain, he revealed, has also impeded communal
efforts to expand cultivation range, stabilize income
fluctuations, and sustain local apiaries and flocks.
One solution that he and others have found for this
issue has been to build dams and canals to divert
water from rivers to their fields. Moreover, during
a dry year, he explained, farmers must plant more
drought-resistant staples of barley and corn, even
when these crops do not provide enough self-sus-
taining income.
Similarly, another farmer named Hasan recounted
that, since a 2008 flood, all of the almond trees have
been dying in the region. Because of this difficult
reality, farmers seek more environmentally resilient
varieties of trees that will flower later in the season,
during a time of greater rainfall. Unrelated to climate
change, Hasan expressed that a lack of fundamental
agricultural training has also been responsible for
diminishing yields. He believes that these farming
practices, wherein people plant their trees and leave
them without care, are a consequence of this defi-
cient education.
At midday, after all farmers had received their
trees, we led a discussion on communal wants
and needs for the future. Through this conver-
sation, we learned that rural Moroccan farmers
often struggle to find the “right” domestic market
for their products, toiling to make enough money,
even in plentiful years. The majority of their crops
are exported raw to European countries, to be
processed and sold at high prices for the benefit
of large corporations, instead of for their original
growers. Moroccans want to access the inter-
national organic market, but rarely can because
they lack adequate resources to effectively plant,
grow, harvest, process, and distribute their produ-
ce. Some farmers have taken this challenge head-
on, successfully managing the “seed to sale”
value chain themselves. In this regard, a few in
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Gourrama have made moderate gains processing
local olives into olive oil.
Beyond this, the group discussion brought forth
two final issues: the inadequacy of young children’s
school facilities and sweeping rural joblessness. Em-
ployment outside the field of agriculture is difficult
to come by in this area, and the only occasional jobs
available are in animal husbandry and beekeeping.
Subsequently, we emphasized that HAF will remain
a part of their entire development process, from the
distribution of seeds to the certification, processing,
and sale of produce, assisted by the USAID Far-
mer-to-Farmer program. To conclude, we completed
a ceremonial tree planting, fertilizing the saplings,
freshly laid to rest, with the traditional practice of
spreading ash on the topsoil to deliver vital nutrients
to the tree roots.
Following a typical late Moroccan lunch, we tra-
veled to a 20-hectare communal farm on an immense
plain bordered by low, rolling mountains. It seemed
an impossibility, with the wind whipping through our
scant jackets and clawing roughly against our flushed
cheeks, that anything could flourish amongst such
tumult. Yet, we learned, adversity and perseverance,
like that which we had seen throughout our visit, was
acutely woven into the very essence of the place we
stood. This project was created by the local agricul-
tural cooperative with a government land grant, pro-
viding jobs for unemployed individuals lacking viable
professional prospects, and keeping them from suc-
cumbing to the tide of rural emigration.
Ingenuity in the face of hardship is commonpla-
ce within this community and the thousands of
others in the High and Middle Atlas Mountains.
Climate change is just the latest challenge they
face. Oftentimes, people find themselves retur-
ning to tradition when they encounter problems
of modern creation. On our last day in Gourrama,
we came upon a small stand-alone corn proces-
sing facility where hydropower is used to churn
grain into flour. This generational self-sustaining
practice has yielded years of profit for the com-
munity. Its industrious design and the myriad of
aforementioned examples serve as remembran-
ces that, despite an ever-changing world, those
who work in symbiosis with their environment will
have their dedication reflected and returned.
OTWO 08 / MARCH 2020
OTWO 08 / MARCH 2020
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