With Morocco as one of the world’s top 33 countries facing water stress that worsens every year, farmers in Morocco are slowly but surely turning to high-tech solutions to combat the effects of global warming by the use of irrigation drones, according to the World Resources Institute.
Although agriculture is a key sector, accounting for 13% of Morocco’s GDP, 14% of exports and 33% of jobs, only 3% of the country’s two million farmers are currently using technology, according to head of the digital unit at Morocco’s Ministry of Agriculture Loubna El Mansouri.
In 2022, Morocco suffered its worst drought for 40 years. The use of new technologies such as irrigation drones are a key component in addressing such challenges.
“With an irrigation drone, you use less than 20 liters of water to irrigate a hectare, compared with almost 300 liters” used with conventional techniques, explained El Mansouri. “So we’re saving a lot of water.”
The widespread use of new technologies in agriculture does, however, require countries to adopt new legal frameworks, and both farmers and government departments must be made more aware of the issue. In Morocco, for example, the use of drones is closely monitored and even banned in certain parts of the country for safety reasons.