The African Development Bank (AfDB) has highlighted, in a research study, the key factors of the success of the Moroccan Green Plan (PVM) and the lessons to be drawn from this strategy. They include the institutional environment and legal reforms that have attracted the private sector, as well as the experience of aggregation with incentives and support to producers and buyers, said the report on the prospects for the development of special agro-industrial processing zones (SAPZ) in Africa.
Thus, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests is responsible for developing and implementing public policy for agricultural and rural development, the same source noted, stressing that the legal update of legislative and regulatory instruments and actors governing the agricultural sector was an important step in the implementation of the first component of the Moroccan Green Plan.
These adaptations concern the legal frameworks governing agricultural production (decree n° 2-13-359), agricultural and fishery inter-professional organizations (law n° 03-13), the agricultural aggregation (law n° 04-12) for inclusive aggregation projects, and legal frameworks governing the safety of food products and the protection of the quality of local organic products (Law No. 39-12), local origin and quality labels (law n° 25-06) and agricultural advice (law n° 58-12) to create the National Agency for Agricultural Advice (ANCA), noted the study. These legal reforms were accompanied by institutional reforms by government agencies and public interventions in the agricultural sector.
The ministry has refocused its main regulatory functions, while service delivery and investment support in agriculture has been delegated to autonomous agencies and the private sector through public-private partnerships. The creation of the Agricultural Development Agency (ADA) to promote private investment in the sector, the National Office for Food Safety (ONSSA) and the National Office of the Agricultural Council (ONCA) in charge of training and advisory services for producers is a perfect illustration of how institutional reform has helped to re-frame the division of tasks between state agencies and create an environment adequate for attracting additional private investment, said AfDB.
Between 2008 and 2018, 104 billion dirhams of investments were obtained mostly thanks to these reforms, of which 40% of public investments and 60% of private investments, it recalled.
