The Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, Ahmed El Bouari, highlighted, Saturday in Kampala, Morocco’s efforts aimed at developing sustainable and resilient agriculture.
“The Kingdom of Morocco, under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God help him, reaffirms its commitment to increasing and accelerating investments in the resilience of the food system and more particularly the agricultural sector,” underlined Mr. . El Bouari who spoke during the work of the Summit of the Detailed Program for the Development of African Agriculture (CAADP), organized from January 9 to 11 in the Ugandan capital.
In perfect alignment with the development objectives of sustainable agriculture in Africa, Morocco has deployed the Generation Green 2020-2030 strategy, relating to agricultural development, and which capitalizes on the positive achievements of the Green Morocco Plan 2008-2020, made namely the minister who is leading a large Moroccan delegation to this major event.
More than 10% of the national public investment budget is allocated to agriculture, in addition to $16 billion in investments intended for water control by 2027, he said.
In the same vein, Mr. El Bouari highlighted the generalization of social protection to all farmers, noting that this initiative reflects the centrality of human capital in Moroccan sustainable development policy.
The efforts made by Morocco were recognized at the continental level during the biennial reviews monitoring the action plan of the Malabo Declaration, he recalled, noting that these biennials placed the Kingdom at the forefront in North Africa and in second position at the continental level.
“We are also guided by the Royal Vision which is based on confidence in South-South cooperation, a united and sustainable cooperation whose successes attest to the relevance of this choice in contributing to the achievement of the CAADP objectives,” said added the government official, reaffirming Morocco’s firm commitment to achieving the objectives of the CAADP 2026-2035, for a prosperous, resilient and united Africa.
Furthermore, Mr. El Bouari was keen to emphasize that the Kampala summit comes at a time when African economies are still suffering from the consequences of the succession of crises since 2020, which have affected the agri-food sector.
Calling for action to address current and future challenges related to food security, the minister lamented that Africa imports around $80 billion per year in food, despite having significant natural and human resources, capable of becoming a major player in global food production.
“Africa’s resilience also requires the development of intra-African trade which is a lever for the economic integration of our continent,” he continued, noting that the African Continental Free Trade Area constitutes a real opportunity. in this sense.
The work of the CAADP Summit opened on Thursday with the participation of a large Moroccan delegation led by Mr. Ahmed El Bouari and composed in particular of the Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Redouane Arrach, the Director of Irrigation and the Interim Agricultural Land Development, within this department, Zakaria El Yacoubi, and the Ambassador of Morocco to the United Republic of Tanzania and the Union of Comoros, Zakaria El Goumiri.
The summit, organized by the African Union Commission, is attended by more than 2,000 participants, including heads of state, government officials, representatives of the private sector and civil society, as well as experts and scientists. .
During this event, under the theme “One voice, one earth”, participants focused on the development and adoption of the CAADP Action Plan (2026-2035) and the Kampala Declaration.
With MAP
