Morocco announced Wednesday, the launch of 10 billion dirhams (approximately $1 billion) aid programme to help its agricultural sector, which has been hard hit by a particularly acute season of long drought.
Aimed at mitigating the effects of delay in rainfall, the emergency plans to “alleviate the impact on agricultural activity and to provide assistance to the farmers and livestock breeders affected”, the royal palace said in a statement.
The royal cabinet added that despite prospects of a reprieve from the drought, the national rainfall average is 75 millimetres, down two-thirds compared to a normal season, the
Also, dam reserves have plummeted, filled at a level of just 33 per cent as of Wednesday, compared to 48 per cent this time last year, official data showed.
The kingdom’s economy, already hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, is heavily dependent on agriculture, which contributes 12 per cent of the GDP.
