ICARDA Caravan, Issue No. 24

Focus

Markets
for Mountain Products

Markus Buerli, Youssef Lalaoui Rachidi, Aden Aw-Hassan, Ahmed Ait Hmida, Abdelaziz Bouizgaren, Abdelmajid Krimi, Lhassane Sikaoui and Mohamed Touzalti

Scenic mountain roads, undisturbed forest, green tea flavored with mint… Welcome to the High Atlas in Morocco. But the same remoteness that draws tourists makes life hard for local residents. Lack of market access is often the key reason for rural poverty. Infrastructure in the High Atlas region is far less developed than elsewhere in Morocco, and poverty is more widespread. But how to improve market access in a poor, remote area? ICARDA and its partners are identifying market opportunities and improving livelihoods in a remote mountain valley in Morocco.

In Morocco, a new approach is helping to connect remote mountain communities to profitable markets.

Mountains without markets
The Anougal valley in Morocco’s High Atlas is only 60 km from Marrakech. It could as well be a world away – the valley has no paved road, no electricity, almost no opportunities for secondary schooling. Nearly half the population is below the national poverty line, compared to 19% country-wide. ICARDA and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) are implementing a research project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, aiming to identify and develop market opportunities for poor households in the valley.

Mountain areas often have strong comparative advantages for specific agricultural products. But to harness these advantages to alleviate poverty, you need roads, electricity, and market infrastructure. Without them, households will continue to be subsistence producers, unable to escape poverty.

Identifying opportunities
The project’s first step was to understand conditions in the valley: cropping systems and practices, constraints and opportunities. This included not only biophysical factors such as soils, topography and adaptation, but also socio-economic factors (e.g. assets, income sources, local institutions) that influence livelihood strategies.

Researchers used Rapid Rural Appraisal methods, speaking to groups of farmers and knowledgeable individuals (key informants), i.e. middlemen, traders, shopkeepers in the local souk, and extension staff. This information was used to develop a questionnaire, which was used to survey 96 households from five villages in the valley.

The surveys identified four products – honey, walnut, fruits (apples, cherries, plums), and medicinal and aromatic plants – that could form the basis for market development interventions to improve the welfare of the poor. Once these potential areas were identified, the project team dug deeper. Additional data on marketing, market channels, prices, and marketing margins at different points along the market chain were collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews.

The information has been gathered, the targets identified. The next step is implementation – developing practical, viable interventions to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods.

Why trees?
The objective is to fight poverty. So why focus on trees – why not crops or livestock? Income from sheep and goats declined sharply after large grazing areas were declared off-limits in the 1970s, as part of government efforts to preserve forest habitat. Livestock production (sheep and goats for meat, cattle for milk) is now stable, but at low levels, with limited prospects for large increases. Crop options are even more limited because of scarcity of land; an increase of one activity is only possible at the expense of another.

There are no tractors in Anougal; plowing is done with draft animals.

But trees have considerable potential. The climate is favorable, fruit trees are profitable – for example, irrigated potatoes are gradually being replaced with fruit trees. If links can be established to markets outside the valley, and if producers can be organized and supported, this expansion will continue and even accelerate, leading to a significant reduction in poverty levels in the valley.

Equity issues
Market development will benefit everyone – but the poorest families will benefit most, because of historical circumstances. The valley was settled in the 1950s and 60s by nomadic pastoralists, after the government imposed restrictions on grazing. The settlers grew crops and vegetables. Some richer households planted fruit trees – they could invest in labor and irrigation, and wait for several years until the trees matured.

Gradually, fruit tree cultivation spread; and today, almost every household in the valley has young trees that will reach productivity in the next few years. Richer households have a mixture of mature and young trees. The poor, who began planting later, have mainly young trees. Creating new market opportunities will increase incomes across the board; but the immediate, most visible impact will be on poorer households.

Walnuts on sale in a Marrakech market. Farmers harvest and sell to the middlemen, who dry, break and store walnuts for sale.

Ripe for plucking
Fruit trees were promoted mainly through free provision of seedlings by the government extension service, Centre des Traveaux. Apples were introduced in the late 1980s, cherries in 1996, plums (through an IFAD-funded project) in 2002. Walnuts have been grown for decades, with support from the extension service. Apple and walnut are the most important income sources. Cherry and plum trees are fewer – but their plantation is increasing rapidly, because they offer better returns.

Production is growing, but is still too low to attract large-scale traders to the valley. Fruits surplus to household needs are either sold to traders from the villages or directly at the souk (local market) in Amizmiz, a small town at the entrance of the valley. The main constraints – and opportunities – are related to post-harvest losses and lack of storage facilities. There are heavy post-harvest losses due to spoilage (fruits) or disease (walnuts). Especially in fruits, these losses can be reduced by simple pre-harvest treatments.

Middlemen – do they help or hinder?
What role do middlemen play in an underdeveloped local economy? Are they facilitators, linking poor producers to markets; or exploiters, buying cheap and selling dear? Answer: a bit of both.

With no paved roads, small production volumes and no unique products, the Anougal valley attracts few traders. The few who operate, have a near-monopoly, so farmers are unable to negotiate better prices. But it’s a complex system. Especially in the upper part of the valley, middlemen are the most important contact – and usually the only means of transport – to the outside world. Middlemen have developed long-term relationships with their clients. They not only buy produce, but also supply agricultural inputs and basic goods (bread, sugar, tea, oil) on credit. Without this service, many households would be unable to survive. But the credit has a downside – households run into debt, and must sell their produce to the middlemen, to repay.

Households could bypass the middlemen by organizing themselves and marketing their produce directly – but this is extremely difficult in practice. Transport is not available, and few poor households will risk abandoning their relationship with traders, to deal directly with a market they have never dealt with before..

Quality is another issue. Farmers want large harvests, irrespective of quality; but it is far more profitable to grow limited quantities of high-quality fruit. This is a common issue with many agricultural products worldwide – and past experience has shown that considerable efforts are needed to convince farmers to make this change.

The market chain
The fruit and walnut trade in the entire valley is controlled by a handful of middlemen. For walnuts, farmers harvest and sell to the middlemen, who dry, break and store the walnuts for sale. Most sales are during the two main Muslim feasts. For fruit trees, the middlemen ‘buy’ the tree 1 to 3 months before the fruits ripen, and supervise the final production stages (pruning, spraying etc) and harvest. Both parties prefer this arrangement. Farmers get paid early, and middlemen get all the fruit, not just the second quality. The fruits are sold in various markets; but cherries and plums are apparently more profitable, with more external traders visiting the valley, and transporting them to more distant markets.

Medicinal and aromatic plants
Medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) represent another major opportunity. The Anougal valley, like the much of the High Atlas, is home to a large number of commercially valuable MAP species.

A few species – mint, verbena, sage, absinth – are grown in small plots for home consumption. Others, such as thyme, rosemary and oregano, grow wild in the forest. The forest plants are protected by law. The government issues licenses to harvest these plants in a few areas during a specific period. But the licenses are bought by middlemen or by distillers who are subcontractors of large companies that export essential oils extracted from these plants.

Essentially, the local population has no access to the MAP market, except for very small quantities that they either grow on their land or collect illegally – mainly for home use, with limited sales in the weekly market in Amizmiz.

Several species are traded in European markets and elsewhere, for use in the foods, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. New species with high market value, such as lavender (Lavandula officinalis) and iris (Iris germanica) are rare locally, but could be introduced. But more studies are needed: which species can be introduced, and what technical and other support is needed to enable local communities to participate in the market. More information is also needed on the MAP market chain – process, margins, and the role of different actors.

The current system will not make a dent in poverty in the valley. Collection from the wild offers only marginal income benefits for local communities. A possible alternative would be well managed community plantations of MAP species, backed up with provision of seedlings, technical support, establishment of production cooperatives, and training on production and processing methods.

Tomorrow’s markets
Four high-potential mountain products have been identified – honey, walnuts, fruits, and medicinal and aromatic plants. Translating this potential into profits will take considerably more work. The project uses the participatory market chain approach, bringing together different stakeholders – communities, traders, government extension agencies, NGOs – to design and implement interventions.

Farmers and middlemen sell medicinal and aromatic plants in a local market.

Stakeholder meetings are being organized to bring together different players in the market chain. Following the meetings, the project aims to form two or three ‘interest groups’ around specific products with good market potential. These interest groups will focus on one or more specific products to further develop implementation plans. Each group will be supported by an external facilitator, funded by the project, who will facilitate interaction, help bring in new technologies for the product in question, and build links with other development organizations with similar interests.

In parallel, a research study will compare Anougal with the neighboring Ourika valley. Ourika has the same environmental conditions as Anougal, but is much better developed. The plum trade is well established, there is a paved road into the valley, and tourism is expanding. The role of middlemen in Ourika is rather different compared to Anougal, partly because farmers have more transport options and more experience in selling directly to tourists. A comparative study will help understand the determinants and process of development in the valleys of the High Atlas. Equally important, it will develop market contacts between the two valleys, for mutual benefit – and perhaps also increase tourism into Anougal.

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Markus Buerli (markus.buerli@deza.admin.ch), formerly Post-Doctoral Fellow at ICARDA, is Program Manager at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Berne, Switzerland. Aden Aw-Hassan is Agricultural Economist at ICARDA. Youssef Lalaoui Rachidi, Ahmed Ait Hmida, Abdelaziz Bouizgaren and Lhasane Sikaoui are from INRA, Marrakech. Abdelmajid Krimi is with the Direction Provinciale d'Agriculture, Marrakech. Mohamed Touzalti is with the Centre des Travaux, Amizmiz, Morocco.

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