The Green Morocco Plan in Boudnib: Examining Effects on Rural Livelihoods

• Author: Alison D. Elder
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10704965221098149
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Journal of Environment &

Development

2022, Vol. 31(3) 275–299

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10704965221098149

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The Green Morocco Plan

in Boudnib: Examining

Effects on Rural

Livelihoods

Alison D. Elder

1



Abstract

In southeastern Morocco, irrigated agriculture is expanding rapidly in a desert area

formerly characterized by oasis agriculture and livestock grazing. The 2008 Green

Morocco Plan (GMP) is fueling this expansion with incentives encouraging agricultural

growth and foreign investment. Despite the GMP’s green, poverty f‌ighting claims, job

opportunities are low-paying and unreliable and water supply is decreasing. Outsider

investors and farmers benef‌it from free groundwater and cheap local labor, leaving

locals to deal with the long-term ecological damage. This research utilizes a mixed

methods approach including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, household

surveys, and a roundtable discussion. It examines GMP implementation in Boudnib as a

continuation of historical, state-managed water policies that emphasize technological

f‌ixes and ignore associated social and environmental costs. It calls for action on the part

of those in power to prevent the deepening of existing inequalities and threats to the

livelihoods and environment of already vulnerable populations.

Keywords

Green Morocco Plan, irrigated agriculture, livelihoods, water, North Africa, sustainable

development

Introduction

I sat down one evening to interview Omar

1

, the owner of a cyber caf´

e in Boudnib,

Morocco. Omar is all too familiar with the rise and fall of ever-changing technologies.

1

School of Geography, Development & Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Alison D. Elder, School of Geography, Development & Environment, University of Arizona, 1064 E. Lowell

Street, Tucson, AZ 85721-0001, USA.

Email: alielde@email.arizona.edu

Business at his once thriving cafe on the main street of Boudnib, a town of 12,000

people in the southeastern desert of Morocco, has slowed to a crawl. Once the only

option for accessing the world wide web, the plethora of smartphones and cafes with

Wi-Fi serving tea and coffee have all but replaced the corner cyber caf´

e, serving only

internet by the half hour on slow, outdated computers. He described the effects of the

expansion of another new technology in Boudnib, large-scale drip irrigation agri-

culture. Beginning in 2014, irrigated agriculture in the Boudnib area of southeastern

Morocco expanded rapidly with the construction of farms belonging to foreign in-

vestors, the royal family, agricultural f‌irms from other parts of the country, and more

recently smaller plots acquired by local people as former communal lands are divided

and privatized. This local eruption of activity and investment is part of a national

development plan in Morocco that ref‌lects global efforts promoting irrigated agriculture

and the liberalization of land markets as engines for rural development and economic

growth (World Bank, 2013).

In Morocco, this trend can be seen in the 2008 Green Morocco Plan (GMP) for

promoting agricultural development to improve rural livelihoods (MMAFRDWF,

2014). In Boudnib, the GMP specif‌ically focuses on intensive irrigated date palm

production. The GMP’s green label aff‌irms Morocco’s projected international image as

a leader in environmental policy (Del Vecchio & Barone, 2018. p. 646). Further, the

plan claims to f‌ight poverty in rural areas through increased economic opportunity.

Omar complained that foreign investors are prof‌iting from the natural resources of

Boudnib, exploiting cheap labor, and giving little in return. Local people lack the means

to compete with foreign investors. Echoing the sentiment of many community members

interviewed, Omar imagined that development in Boudnib would include the provision

of a hospital, better roads, an agricultural job training center, more schools for the

growing population and specif‌ically a girls’boarding school to further the education of

girls from the surrounding villages.

This paper examines the transformation of agricultural systems and their impacts on

livelihoods. Following a mixed methods approach, it includes document analysis,

household surveys, a roundtable discussion, and interviews. It draws from scholarship

on the role of irrigated agriculture in development and from critical development

studies. This research responds to calls from development scholars to evaluate the on-

the-ground reality of rural development projects (Bennett et al., 2018) by examining the

early phases of a GMP irrigated agriculture project.

This research f‌inds a disconnect between the stated objectives of the GMP and its

implementation on the ground. Its green label and poverty alleviation claims mask

ecological damage and limited economic opportunity for local people. This has im-

plications for GMP application elsewhere in Morocco and for the implementation of

irrigated agriculture development around the world.

Methods and Approach

This project uses document analysis, semi-structured interviews, household surveys,

and a roundtable discussion, to understand the effects of irrigated agriculture on local

276 The Journal of Environment & Development 31(3)