In Morocco, the Massire project focuses on a territory which includes the Todgha Valley and Ferkla Oases. This area is made of 19 rural municipalities which extend from the southern slopes of High Atlas Mountains to irrigated areas at the outskirts of the desert.
© Khardi
The Todgha oasis is located in the Tinghir Province, between the southern slopes of High Atlas Mountains and the eastern limit of Anti-Atlas Mountains (Saghro Jbel). This oasis extends along approximately 30 km along the Todgha River, from the Todgha Gorges to Ghellil Plain.
©Haas, 2005
In the valley and neighboring plains, the production system changes depending on two factors: water and land. These two factors are the main drivers influencing spatial organization and agricultural dynamics. From upstream to downstream, the farmed areas increase, crops are less and less dedicated to home consumption and increasingly marketed. They require higher amounts of water, especially from wells and boreholes. Drip irrigation in newly farmed areas exemplifies farmers’ new ways of using water, which was used traditionally in the valley and in oases thanks to the khettara (or foggara) system. Socio technical transformations take place and are getting more and more important, because of the development of market opportunities, the incentives provided by public policies, and socioeconomic evolutions in the region. These dynamics take place faster that the assimilation capacities of the environment, of inhabitants, and of institutions. They offer many opportunities for innovation, regulation and adaptation, but they also trigger risks of divides and of crises.
The Massire project focuses on characterizing the solutions that are imagined, diffused, adopted and adapted locally. In situ experimentations of these solutions and of others developed in other territories will enable to make explicit the elements of functional and sustainable rural innovation systems and to strengthen the capacities of actors (especially young people and women) to innovate.
Oasis in the Todgha Valley © Errahj
Agriculture in high mountain valleys (Atlas) © Errahj
Agriculture in newly farmed areas © Errahj