Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

IFAD has been working in Morocco for several decades in rural mountain areas where the concentration of poor families is the largest. IFAD’s interventions focus on integrated and inclusive value chain approaches (with particular focus on women and youth). Taza Pre-Rif's Integrated Mountain Rural Development Project (PRODER-Taza) will pursue this approach focusing on two districts (cercles) of the Province of Taza. It will build on the on-going interventions in the southern part of the province.
PRODER is in line with the strategic priorities set out in the RB-COSOP of Morocco to provide support to the Government's priorities for agricultural development and poverty alleviation. In the wider context the Project contributes to SDGs 1, 2, 3 and 13. It complements the UN family efforts in the country and strengthens IFAD’s comparative advantage and its strong role in the implementation of outcomes 6 (inclusive and integrated rural development) of the Morocco UNDAF. It would also provide lessons to the new generation of UNDAFs as being re-engineered in the context of the UN reform.
Implemented within the context of the Green Morocco Plan, PRODER Taza contributes also to the Government program to reduce social and territorial disparities (2017-2023) which aims to increase access to the rural and mountain areas with a view to improving the quality of life and enable people to benefit from the natural and economic opportunities and the wealth of these areas. PRODER-Taza is aligned with several of the Government's strategic objectives, and also align with the IFAD's expertise in this niche of mountain areas development in the country.
The integrated territorial approach of the Project is based on a territorial continuity of interventions in the upstream and downstream segments of the of the fruit tree cropping and beekeeping value chains. Investments are supplemented with technical support (extension) and social engineering (organizational and business/marketing management capacities), to enable beneficiaries to improve their production and cost-effectively use their economic infrastructure.
The Project overall objective is to sustainably increase the incomes of rural households in the pre-Rif Mountains of Taza Province. Its development objectives are to support the conversion of rain-fed cereal mono-cropping on about 11,400 ha into smallholder tree (9,800 ha of almond trees, 1,000 ha of fig trees, 600 ha of olive trees), beekeeping (3,000 populated hives), and to improve the commercial opportunities of the four value chains (almond, fig, olive, honey), by opening up production areas and upgrading the organized actors in these value chains.
This conversion towards a more productive and resilient smallholder agricultural systems in the mountain areas of Taza, will be gradual and will encourage inter-cropping practices. The Project will contribute to an increase in the tree crop production potential and tree yields. 180 km of rural roads will be rehabilitated, existing market places (rahba) and honey processing units (UV) will be improved. 100 rural micro-enterprises (MER) in the value chains and their related activities (mainly led by women's and youth cooperatives), will be supported to improve income and resilience of women, youth and landless rural people.
The Project will be implemented over a period of 6 years from 2020 to 2025. The Project target group includes vulnerable agricultural producers whose income, food security and access to markets remain highly fragile. Women and youth are the bulk of this target population. The number of direct beneficiaries of the Project will be 56 000 persons, or 11 200 households, representing 50% of the total population of the two districts. The project will promote economic empowerment of women (through gender-focused investments and activities) and will work to enable women to have equal voice and influence decisions (Priority will be dedicated to efforts that ensure participation of 25 to 30% of women in decision-making processes in rural institutions. 40% of the beneficiaries will be women. The Project will be gender transformative and youth-sensitive (scaling up les équipes metiers, training, business incubation etc.). IFAD climate adaptation finance for PRODER-Taza amounts to EUR 22 140 014 (representing 68.2% of IFAD finance).
The Project is built on a comprehensive analysis of lessons learned from IFAD projects in Morocco and actions identified by the Provincial Directorate of Agriculture (DPA) Taza in a consultative manner with local communities. It strongly builds on their experience from the implementation of Agricultural Value Chain Development Programme in the mountain zones of Taza (PDFAZMT).
The project is articulated around two components that mutually contribute to the achievement of the development objectives : (i) Development of climate resilient fruit tree and beekeeping value chains; (ii) Adding value to production and marketing. The project directly addresses an adaptation deficit, as the profitability of current productive practices (largely based on the marginal activity of rain-fed cereal cropping) is threatened by climate change.
The total cost of the Project is estimated at approximately 82.6 million EUR (883.8 million MAD). The base cost is estimated at around 69.83 million EUR (747.1 million MAD, or 84.6%). The physical and financial contingencies are at 12.76 million EUR (15.47%). The investment costs of 71.96 million EUR represent 87.2% of the total cost. The foreign exchange portion is estimated at 17.5 million EUR (21.2%) and the local costs, excluding taxes, are 49.5 million EUR (59%).
The financing plan for the project is as follows: (i) IFAD for nearly EUR 31.9 million in loans and EUR 0.6 million in grants, representing a total of 39.3% of project cost ); (ii) the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco for approximately EUR 43.6 million (52.8%), and iii) the beneficiaries for EUR 6.5 million (7.9%).The two technical components and the project management component are financed as follows. Component 1 "Development of climate change resilient tree cropping and beekeeping", with 35.1 EUR million (42%) entails four sub-components: "Protection of cultivated land” (8%), "Fruit tree Development" (22%), "Beekeeping" (1%) and "Technical support for tree cropping and beekeeping" (13%). Component 2 "Adding value to production and marketing” for 40.2 million EUR (49 %) is made up of four sub-components: "Rehabilitation of rural roads” (33%), "Upgrading of the rahba and rehabilitation of processing units" (2.8%), "Support to rural micro-enterprises" (4.5%) and "Coaching and business development support" (0.3%). Component 3 "Project management unit (PMU) and M&E" for 6.2 million EUR (7.4%) is split between support to the PMU (6.9%) and M&E (0.5%). Policy dialogue and SSTC[1] are financed through grant for a total of 0.6 million EUR (40% for policy dialogue and 60% for SSTC).
The project's internal rate of economic return (ERR) is 15.4%, which is significantly higher than the opportunity cost of capital (10%). The economic net present value is positive (238 million USD) and the cost-benefit ratio is satisfactory (1.4). These indicators demonstrate the profitability of the Project. By comparison, this ERR is higher than the one estimated during the design for PDFAZMT (14.2%). The level of risk of the Project, taking mitigation measures into account, is assessed as low.
The Project offers a coherent and integrated approach involving all the actors in the almond, fig, olive and beekeeping value chains and reinforcing investments in rural infrastructure (roads in particular). It entails an important environmental subcomponent (protection of productive lands from erosion) and will encourage resilient and sustainable practices in production and processing. The Project will work in sites where land tenure issues are not a constraint. Its inclusive approach will ensure adequate targeting and reduced inequalities, in particular for women. In terms of infrastructure, PRODER will finance limited investments, which will be mainly related to the rehabilitation of roads and Rahbas (rural markets).
The Project will be an important venue for policy dialogue and SSTC. It will foster a policy dialogue with the Government of Morocco on establishing an enabling environment for rural youth employment (building on IFAD’s flagship experiences in this area and the strong interest it has generated among national stakeholders in the country which is replicating it in many other regions). The project will build on IFAD’s brokering role and strong engagement with the Government of Morocco on the SSTC front. IFAD’s partnership with the Government on SSTC is a key priority and is taking the level of collaboration between IFAD and the Government to a higher level of strategic engagement. SSTC efforts will not be duplicative, they will build on the existing grant (under implementation in the context of the ongoing Atlas Mountains Rural Development Project : PDRMA). It will work to support the outcomes of the policy dialogue focusing for instance on a wider replication of policy innovations relating to rural youth employment.
Given the Project approach and its focus on sustainability and resilience, the potential environmental and social impacts will be limited in scope. From an environmental and social point of view, the Project is classified in category B. Consideration of the external factors and the adaptation measures that will need to be taken by the project (conversion of a rain-fed cereal farming system highly exposed to climatic hazards into an integrated system of fruit tree cropping with intercropping of cereals and diversification with beekeeping) derive from the high climatic risk.
The Project will be under the administrative authority of MAPMDREF (Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêches maritimes, du Développement rural et des Eaux et Forêts) through the DDERZM (Direction de développement de l'espace rural et des zones de montagne). A National Steering Committee (NPC) will be set up under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of MAPMDREF, and DDERZM will act as Secretary of the NPC.
The Project implementation will be based on the central project coordination unit (PCU) at DDERZM, which already manages PDRMA, and extended in the field through a PMU in Taza province. The Provincial Director of DPA Taza will be the Project Director.
The sustainability of investments has been taken into account from the outset of Project design. Design is based on a participatory process through which beneficiaries an local authorities have identified investment needs and the key value chains that will drive the development process. Support to rural enterprises will be provided on the basis of bankable business plans to allow beneficiaries to integrate sustainably into the economic context of the value chains in a market economy. The project approach is oriented towards resilient production and market-oriented value chain development to ensure that project sustainability will be driven by environmental and financial sustainability factors.