Ecosystem services to promote Conservation Agriculture practices in Morocco: Challenges and opportunities
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Citation
Rachid Dahan, Rachid Moussadek. (22/10/2022). Ecosystem services to promote Conservation Agriculture practices in Morocco: Challenges and opportunities.
Abstract
In Morocco, the low-input cropping systems dominated by cereal monoculture and intensive
tillage have a marked negative impact on pressure from diseases, weeds and pests resulting in
decreased profit margins. This form of agriculture is considered to act as a major driver of
biodiversity loss and to speed up the loss of soil by increasing the mineralization of organic matter
and erosion rates. It is also causing adverse effects on major soil functions, viz. primary
productivity, carbon sequestration and regulation, nutrient cycling and provision, water
regulation and purification, and habitat for functional and intrinsic biodiversity. Conservation
agriculture (CA) is an alternative to enhance and optimize the provision of soil functions.
Conservation Agriculture practice constitutes no-till combined with residue retention and crop
rotation, CA is practiced to optimize available resources (soil, water and biological) whilst
minimizing external inputs and soil degradation. Despite reported benefits, such as improved soil
fertility, crop growth, better water infiltration, increased biological activity, decreased soil erosion
and reduced labor, machinery use and fuel costs, CA is practiced only in less than 1% of cereal
agricultural lands, well below the land areas of similar continental farming landscapes
