The Green Morocco Plan in Boudnib: Examining Effects on Rural Livelihoods

In southeastern Morocco, irrigated agriculture is expanding rapidly in a desert area formerly characterized by oasis agriculture and livestock grazing. The 2008 Green Morocco Plan (GMP) is fueling this expansion with incentives encouraging agricultural growth and foreign investment. Despite the GMP’s green, poverty fighting claims, job opportunities are low-paying and unreliable and water supply is decreasing. Outsider investors and farmers benefit from free groundwater and cheap local labor, leaving locals to deal with the long-term ecological damage. This research utilizes a mixed methods approach including document analysis, semi-structured interviews, household surveys, and a roundtable discussion. It examines GMP implementation in Boudnib as a continuation of historical, state-managed water policies that emphasize technological fixes and ignore associated social and environmental costs. It calls for action on the part of those in power to prevent the deepening of existing inequalities and threats to the livelihoods and environment of already vulnerable populations.