Morocco’s Agriculture Ministry has given an 11.85 million dirham contract to a team led by Boston Consulting Group, working with Novec and Agro-Concept, to review the country’s farming plan and prepare a new long-term strategy to 2050.
The group won the global tender ahead of Capital RH, Inetum Consulting Maroc and Forvis Mazars. The ministry said the proposal offered the best mix of technical quality and price.
The job has two parts. First, the team will check how the Generation Green 2020–2030 plan is progressing and suggest ways to speed up key projects before the decade ends. Then they will design a long-term plan for Moroccan agriculture through 2050.
The study will look closely at soil quality and water availability across farming regions. It will also use climate data to predict how rising temperatures and falling rainfall could affect harvests and food supply in 2035, 2040 and 2050.
The government will be asked to choose between two main directions. One option focuses on producing more basic foods at home, especially cereals. The other looks for a balance between producing food locally and staying strongly connected to global markets through exports.
This choice matters because farming is vital to Morocco’s economy but is increasingly threatened by long-term drought.
Morocco has relied on long-term farm plans for years. The Plan Maroc Vert strategy between 2008 and 2020 boosted investment and exports such as citrus and tomatoes and helped triple agricultural GDP. However, it was criticised for favouring large farms and putting heavy pressure on groundwater.
The current Generation Green plan aims to support small farmers, create a rural middle class of 400,000 households and push digital and sustainable farming.
Water pressure is growing. Agriculture uses more than 80% of the country’s water, and water available per person could fall to around 500 cubic metres a year by 2050. Severe droughts that once came every seven to ten years now happen roughly every three years.
To cope, Morocco is investing in desalination plants and major water transfer projects from the wetter north to drier regions, and studying how desalinated water could be used for irrigation.
Morocco exports berries, vegetables and fertilisers but still imports large amounts of wheat and sugar. Export earnings help pay for grain imports, yet recent global price shocks have renewed calls to produce more staple foods at home.
The new study is expected to help decide which crops Morocco should prioritise as the country prepares for a hotter and drier future.
