Desertification and Its Control in Morocco - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 104

Several collaborative research and development projects ('Multipurpose Fodder
shrubs and Trees', 'Sustainable Management of the Agro-Pastoral Resource Base
in the Oujda Region', the 'Mashreq/Maghreb' project, the 'Taourirt-Tafoghalt'
project, and the 'Pastoral and Herding Development' project) are operating in
the region. ICARDA and the Moroccan national program are key participants.
A common feature of these projects is the use of a participatory approach involving
all stakeholders concerned with sustainable development of agropastoral resources.
Involvement of pastoral communities within the 'Sustainable Management of the
Agro-Pastoral Resource Base in the Oujda Region' project, supported by the Swiss
government, is described below to illustrate this participatory approach.
Due to human and animal population growth, cropping has expanded into low
rainfall areas and into very fragile environments to the detriment of rangeland,
resulting in increased feed deficit and soil erosion. To reverse the situation, ICARDA
and its Moroccan partners are testing the suitability of shrubs as an intercrop (alley
cropping) with barley and other common crops, such as oats, and mixtures of barley
and fodder pea, and barley and vetch.
The ley farming operation was launched in 1986 aiming at the integration of
sheep and cereal production by cultivating the 1.6-2.6 Mha that have been in fallow
each year. Despite the real advantages that this operation represents in the semi-arid
regions of Morocco, the substitution of the rotation cereal-annual medics or cereal-
subterranean clover was only done on about 5,200 ha/year. The main reason for the
limited adoption of this system is related to the size of the farms. In fact, most of the
farms are very small and scattered which makes movement of the herd and grazing
difficult.
Alley cropping where an annual crop is planted between rows of the perennial
shrub Atriplex provide a stable and productive system that benefits the integrated
livestock-cropping system.
On-station and on-farm testing suggests that alley cropping with Atriplex (salt-
bush) could greatly increase crop and animal production, and at the same time help
to protect fragile soils from wind and water erosion.
Total biomass and grain yield were higher in alley cropped systems. Energy
and crude protein yields also increased by 11-93 % and 16-196 %, respectively.
Alley cropping increased land equivalent ratios from 1 (barley or weedy fallow)
to 1.20-1.46, suggesting that this technology will be particularly useful in areas
where farm size is small. (A land-equivalent ratio of more than one indicates that
growing an intercrop gives higher total output per unit area than a single crop).
The adoption of this technology is taking off. Indeed, a total of 6,000 ha of alley
cropping systems have already been established on private farms within the Taourirt-
Tafoghalt project. This was a result of collaboration between different research and
development projects, such as the CGIAR System-wide Livestock Program's Multi-
purpose Fodder Shrubs and Trees project led by ICARDA, ICARDA's Mashreq
Maghreb project, and the Taourirt-Tafoghalt project. A further 8,000 ha are to be
alley cropped in the coming years (Fig. 5.6 ).