The nation’s unrelenting dry spell is ushering in record wheat imports and risking fruit and vegetable sales abroad.
June 27, 2024 at 12:00 AM EDT
A seedling breaks through the cracked earth of a cereal field in Berrechid, Morocco.Photographer: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
Mohamed Sadiri has farmed the same 3 hectares in western Morocco since 1963, and he’s never seen the land this parched.
Wheat yields plummeted last year to 1 ton per hectare (2.5 acres), his smallest harvest ever, as the worst drought period in three decades envelops the North African nation. The 25-foot-deep well on Sadiri’s plot dried up, and he can’t afford to dig any deeper. So now he’s trying barley, a more resilient crop.
