New Drought-Tolerant Crops in Morocco

Six new promising drought-tolerant varieties of durum wheat and barley were developed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Morocco, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The partnership, with also includes INRA-Maroc and Benchaib Semences company, falls under the DIIVA-PR project, funded by the Crop Trust.
The new varieties aim to strengthen food and nutrition security and improve the livelihoods and resilience of Moroccan farmers.
This ground-breaking research is aligned with the 2020–2030 Generation Green of the Moroccan Agriculture Ministry aimed at increasing production while putting farmers at the center of research, said ICARDA.
Durum wheat varieties are Nachit which was released by INRA in 2017 and should be commercially distributed by SONACOS starting 2025, Jabal in 2021 and should become commercially available from Benchaib Semences in 2025, and Jawahir in 2022 by INRA and is yet to be sold to a seed company.
Barley varieties are Chiffa and Assiya which were released by INRA in 2016, and Khnata in 2017.
ICARDA is an international organization undertaking research for development.