Morocco devises plan to promote rural world

The Moroccan agriculture and rural development minister announced on Wednesday a five-year program to develop the Moroccan rural world.

The levelling up of the Moroccan economy requires the existence of a competitive agricultural sector to face up the challenges of globalization, Habib El Malki said at a meeting with the press.

He underlined that the rural world should benefit from all development means to contribute to the promotion of the national economy.

According to a document distributed to the press, some 54 percent of rural localities are still isolated, which generates a "human development level that puts Morocco among the least developed nations."

Some 63 percent of the countryside population live without potable water, 93 percent have no access to health services and 87 percent of rural households have no electricity. Illiteracy reaches 67 percent and 46 percent of children at schooling age are out of school.

Habib Malki said the government had already started to implement a number of large-scale national programs, including the construction or the rehabilitation of 11,200 km of roads, installation or improvement of potable water systems for 11 million inhabitants living in 31,000 localities and the electrification of 150,000 houses by the year 2010.

These achievements, though being urgent and necessary, remain insufficient to settle the problems of the rural world, Malki said. A new global approach, revolving around "human development" is necessary, he added.

The minister stressed the need to contemplate a number of other special programs, targeting the poorest areas.

The Five-year development plan is to pave the way for the irrigation of another 150,000 hectares and develop 156,000 other arable hectares