ABSTRACT
Agricultural policies in Morocco over the past 50 years have not only been unsuccessful in ensuring food security for the population, but also in promoting an agricultural export model capable of being a dynamo of growth. Further, they have failed to improve the rural population’s living standards by any significant measure. Morocco’s decision-makers could have taken the opportunity to properly evaluate past experiences to rework their vision for agriculture and the rural world, but instead they have persisted in promoting reckless free trade. In any event, the new agricultural policy which bears the name ‘Green Plan for Morocco’ (Plan Maroc Vert), initiated in 2008, elicits a number of questions. First and foremost are those pertaining to the country’s food security, especially in times when such matters are the subject of increasing tension worldwide. In the following, I will begin by giving an overview of how the question of food security has been addressed in Morocco’s agricultural policy since its political independence and point out the choices and measures that were implemented and, eventually, caused an ever-increasing dependency on food imports. I will then analyse the Green Plan for Morocco and question if this new strategy represents a rupture with, or a continuation of, past approaches. Last, I will discuss the implications of this strategy for the supply and demand of staple foods and relate this to Morocco’s future food security and food sovereignty.
