The ICARDA’s 4CE-MED team visited a progressive farmer Mr. Aziz Zin El Abidine, in the Meknes region, Morocco on the sideline of “the second edition of the Maghreb Oilseeds Meetings (RMO)” on March 5, 2024, to popularize 4CE-MED practices and camelina as an ancient new oil seed crop for Morocco. Mr. Zine El Abidine is a large farmer, farming his family farm in the Meknes, which is situated in the middle of Saiss plain, one of the most fertile and rich plains in Morocco. In this region, bread wheat is an important cereal crop, which is usually rotated with faba bean. In recent years, rape seed crops have also been introduced in the wheat-based cropping system. In recent years, because of climate change, rainfall has been reduced and inconsistent over years.
To cope with this situation, he moved from conventional practices to conservation agriculture practices, which helped in increasing soil cover, better water conservation in soil, and increased soil organic matter. He also gave an overview of his farm, various conservation agriculture (CA) practices, crop rotations that he is following, and various farm machinery used for CA. ICARDA team gave an overview of the potential of camelina as a new cash cover crop and various 4CE-MED practices adapted to deploy camelina in a cereal-based cropping system. Mr. Zin El Abidine is very keen to plant camelina under CA during coming cropping season, in his field.
Image: sowing machine used for conservation agriculture