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Abstract

The Assif Melloul watershed is a valley of High Atlas Mountains with an altitude ranging from 2400 to over 3000m, located in the semi-arid bioclimatic stage with very cold winter, the growing season is limited to two months (May and June); the level of production of the dry matter is between 700 to 1000kg / ha /year. The ecosystems are fragile, including poorly arable and poorly protected soils which are frequently eroded. Agriculture is therefore subsistent and limited to modest irrigated land and pastoral life predominates. In order to face the degradation of agropastoral lands by water erosion and recurrent floods, the beneficiaries and local actors have embarked in recent years in an anti-erosion process combining mechanical works and revegetation using two indigenous shrubs, the thorn barberry and wild currant. The studies carried out in this research focused on the resilience of these two species to abiotic factors and the evaluation of their nutritional and forage value. The results obtained revealed that barberry reproduces well by sexual voice, even under salt and heat stress, with a germination rate of 75% to 93%, the cuttings of this species are 97% successful but the rate relating to layering is almost nule. The latter technique, however, is the only successful route of propagation for wild currant showing a rate of around 95%. The evaluation of biomass, chemical composition, nutritional value and of these two species show promising results in terms of carbon sequestration and forage.