Study site description: Sehoul, Morocco

Table of Contents

1. General information
2. Bio-physical description
3. Land and resource use
   1. Land use practice in cultivated areas
   2. Water resources
   3. Forest resources
   4. Strengths of existing land use practices
   5. Weaknesses of existing land use practices
   6. Major degradation issues
   7. Experimental results
4. Socio-economic description
5. Institutional and political setting
6. Relevant end-users / stakeholder groups
7. Past and on-going projects

Weaknesses of existing land use practices

The weak aspects of the existing land use practices are varied:

• Extensive cultivation continues to expand at the expense of forest.
• Extensive grazing is one of the practices which degrade rapidly the Sehoul ecosystem. The impact on forests is evident. The current pressure is about 2.2 sheep/ha, while the carrying capacity doesn't exceed 0.82.
• The limited use of fertilizers and of selected seeds explains the low yields of about 0.6 t/ha of wheat and 0.4t/ha of corn. Only the plots neighbouring houses benefit from a significant supply of manure. The latter is now increasingly sold to owners of irrigated farms, that cultivate cash crops. On the cereal plots, chemical fertilizers are used, but with inadequate amount.
• The introduction of mechanisation is important for the modernisation of agriculture, but the form and the size of the plots are not adapted for the mechanical ploughing which is done along the slope and which accelerates erosion.

The negative environmental impact of the cultivation practices is follows the transformation of agricultural systems, which impose new requirements on land and water resources. The reduction in fallow, the pressure on irrigation resources and the uncontrolled access to silvo-pastoral resources are examples of this.

Some indicators of weakness

• The decrease of the fallow periods, in relation with the trend to disappearance of the free breeding (grounds); farmers must cultivate every year and have to reserve some plots to fodder production. The fallow had the advantage to permit the restoration of the soil quality.
• There is an increasing trend in animal numbers. Between 1997 and 2001 the number of cattle increased from 15000 to 17000 (+ 11,7%), the number of sheep from 40.000 to 56.000 (+ 28,6%).
• The pressure on the water table, in relation with the extension of irrigation. In 2003, the supply to the water table was about 7,5 M m³ in the context of an average of rain of 450 mm, while the withdrawal is estimated about 7,2 M m³.
• The non controlled access to the forest and pastures.
• Uncontrolled access to silvo-pastoral resources; the extension of fruit trees and of fences led to more animals in the forest (about 300 days/ a year.