Suffering in agriculture

My grand parents still living in a rural area called Zaouit Sidi Hamza, this one of many marginalized areas in the regions of Midelt city, which is located in the center south of Morocco,every year I used to visit them and I touch their suffering in their livelihood. All the people especially the youth there complain about the indifference that they face from responsibles of that field even there are many national plans and strategies like* PMV* Plan Maroc Vert which assigns a great budget in rural areas, but unfortunately as a small farmers they don’t benefit from any support. From that point I joined a local association called association of helping small farmes to reach their problems and their challenges to all responsibles of this important sector.

In the occasion of working with YPARD (Youth professionals for agricultural development) and ICARDA/HALF international organizations in a *study about rural youth in agriculture in Midelt city in Morocco*. We visited many villages and focused on three important agricultural livelihood system(ALS)*pastoral,rainfed and irrigated one*,we asked young people between 15 ans 30 years old about their relation toward agriculture, their problems and challenges( they still depending on traditional agiculture ,no machines to dig wells which are the main important things especially in the years of drought, the high price of pesticides…etc)  and their dreams in which all of them were expressing their love to the land but under this miserable situation of agriculture, they prefer to travel to big cities to find a job which can keep their dignity….etc.In addition to that, we made videos to some of them explaining their whole situation in rural areas,its advantages and disadvantages at the same time. Hence, from that experience, I discovered some hard truths for example, I find that a great number of young people imigrated to other cities so as to find a job which can keep their dignity since no one care about their suffering or think of helping them materially and by some training about how they can start a modern agriculture.

This work with YPARD/ICARDA/HAFL pushed me to join to some groups interesting in agriculture and its challenges in Facebook and twitter .

The participation in the third conference GCRAD3 in  Johannesburg in South Africa will permit me to present the voice and demands of young people in my region in particular and of Morocco in general. On the other hand; I will know different ideas and experiences over the world and I will make a report about some solutions to develop agriculture in my region.

I have a licence degree in English literature *University Moulay Ismail in Meknes*.I chose this department since I like to communicate with other people  from other countries and exchanging ideas with them., I represented  Moroccan culture in a forum organized by  an American Organization ISA (International studies abroad) and Moulay Ismail University  which had a goal to abolish stereotypes ,pre-judgement and spread co-existence between all the people in the world in spite of their cultural differences,I’m very motivated to participate in that conference and I’m sure that I will add a value.

This blog post is part of the GCARD3 Youth blogpost applications. The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.