IPNI North Africa Challenges in Nutrient Management Under Rainfed Agriculture of Morocco

Abstract

Agriculture in Morocco has always been a strategic sector for the socio-economic development of the country. Since the country's independence, the agricultural sector has undergone many agricultural and rural development programs and structural reforms to enable the country to achieve food security and contribute to the economic growth.Fertilizer use in Morocco is still low and covers barely 50% of the real needs. Also, the quantities used in average are well below the recommended ones. The mean consumption is about 50kg fertilizers/ha with excessive application in some areas. Given this fact, fertilizer use must increase in order to reverse the current trends of low crop productivity and land degradation.Soils and soil fertility research conducted in Morocco have played a major role in the improvement of fertilizer use. Initial efforts focused on the identification of nutrient constraints in the field, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus. However, despite such developments, the impact at farm level is still far from satisfactory in terms of yield increases.IPNI North Africa is focusing on the implementation of the concept of 4R Nutrient Stewardship by conducting research platforms on efficient use of fertilizers through the evaluation of fertilizer sources and their application rates and time in dryland and irrigated agriculture under Mediterranean climatic conditions.The approach is the integrated plant nutrition approach which seeks to improve nutrient-use efficiency, to build up nutrient stocks in the soil, and to limit losses to the environment.During the last two years, several research platforms were conducted in such a way to cover different agro-ecological zones, soil types and cropping systems in order to establish fertilizer recommendations for crops base on the cropping system practiced. Also, brochures, training materials and pocket guides on best management practices were developed. In addition to training, field days and farmers field schools.Research platforms concerned both cereal and olive tree production systems. Fifty platforms on cereals have been conducted in four different regions in Morocco and one region in Algeria and four platforms on olive trees two in Morocco and two in Tunisia.