Moroccans will pray again for rain

Moroccans will perform on Friday rogatory prayers after rainfalls were abnormally late this winter, threatening the country with another drought cycle.

In Morocco, the agricultural sector accounts for around 20 percent of the country's GDP and employs nearly 50% of an estimated 8-million working population.

This is the 2nd time that Moroccans will have prayed for rain in less than a month. Alarmed by the specter of drought, the Moroccan government decided last November to summon the national commission in charge of rural development to take measures to alleviate farmers' hardships and make up for a potential shortage in cereals, water and other agricultural produce.

Morocco suffers from cyclical droughts at an average of once every three years, a fact that severely affects its agricultural productivity.