A number of reforms in the agricultural sector have taken place to liberalize agriculture and food prices, reduce subsidies and restructure public expenditures in the sector. To meet the challenges posed by the growing water scarcity, Morocco has adopted an integrated approach to water resources management through mutually reinforcing policy and institutional reforms.
The major policy reforms adopted are the following:
- The adoption of a long term strategy for IWRM. The National Water Plan is the vehicle for strategy implementation and will serve as the framework for investment programs until the year 2020;
- The development of a new legal and institutional frameworks to promote decentralized management and increase stakeholder participation;
- Introducing economic incentives in water allocation decisions through rational tariff and cost recovery;
- Taking capacity enhancing measures to meet institutional challenges for the management of water resources; and
- Establishing effective monitoring and control of water quality to reduce environmental degradation.
In addition, Morocco has adopted an “interventionist” type of irrigation policy for LSI systems development to promote the rational use of water resources and to overcome the constraints related to the situation of its peasants. The framework of this policy is defined by a variety of laws grouped in the “Code of Agricultural Investment” (1969).
This Code is regarded as a contract between State and farmers to build the national economy through irrigation development. The state pays for the dams, the irrigation network and necessary on-farm development. It provides credit, selected seeds, fertilizer, farm equipment etc. Finally, it guaranties the prices of certain crops through contracts.
In turn the farmer is obligated to farm his irrigated land in the national interest, to follow the norms imposed for this hydraulic sector, and to r the State 40% of the investment costs and 100% of operation & maintenances costs through a land improvement tax and volumetric water charges.