ABSTRACT
This chapter examines land policy, food production and rural development experience of Morocco and Libya. Like Tunisia, but unlike Algeria, the repossession of foreign-owned land was not of immediate priority in Moroccan post-independence rural development strategy. Instead, priority was given between 1956 and 1960 to the expropriation of the relatively small area owned by the Moroccans who collaborated with the former French administration, and those who opposed the activities of the Liberation Army. Integrated rural development efforts have also improved pasture lands and animal husbandry in rainfed areas. The tribal system and its communal rights in land was predominant in rural Libya. It had combined deeply rooted customs and agro-climatic requirements, and it was able to meet the country' food needs, as well as to employ a major section of rural population. The rapid expansion of compulsory free schooling in rural areas has contributed to the decline in native labor supply in agriculture.
