Cereal harvest reaches 63.5 mln quintals

Morocco's cereals harvest reached this year 63.5 Million quintals including 28.3 Mln/Qn of soft wheat, 15.5 Ml/Qn of hard wheat and 15.5 Ml/Qn of barley, the Moroccan agriculture minister said Tuesday in Rabat.

Habib El Malki told the weekly government council meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi, that the season was marked by a regression of the sugar beet culture and that problems faced the marketing of olive oil.

The government, he said, decided in this regard to set up a ministerial commission to address these issues in addition to those linked to the price of diesel-oil used to operate agricultural machinery.

The Moroccan minister added that four draft laws have been submitted to the government to increase the state's financial assistance and backing to farmers to enable them improve agricultural output.