Impact of agricultural groundwater use development on an irrigated sub-sector: The case of the onion in Saïs (Morocco)

Abstract

At the global scale, due to the rapid development of wells and drillinga third of farming's irrigated surfaces rely upon groundwater resources.By securing access to irrigation, groundwater enables an increase inyields and production volumes. It also leads to a change in croprotation systems with the introduction of high added value crops. Thesechanges have consequences on downstream operators, who must be organizedand coordinated to market the products. In Morocco, as in manydeveloping countries, these fast changes are made in a context of stronginformality. Such is the case of the onion subsector in the region ofSais. Production has strongly increased in recent years, due to privateirrigation. Around this agricultural production, numerous informalactivities have been developed to market the product. This article aimsto show i) how the subsector has been organized in response to the rapiddevelopment of private irrigation and crop production, ii) who thestakeholders are, their roles and their relations, while iii) assessingthe impacts of this irrigated subsector in terms of employment, addedvalue and distribution. Many investors are still attracted by thisbooming sector although many of them risk being rapidly excluded.Farmers and wholesalers are more threatened by price decreases than bywater resource depletion.