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RABAT. – In the hills of northern Morocco, vast cannabis fields are ready for harvest, but farmers complain that a government plan to market the crop legally is yet to deliver them any benefits.
The marginalised Rif region has long been a major source of illicit hashish smuggled to Europe while Moroccan authorities, wary of social unrest, have often turned a blind eye.
Growers now hope that a change in the law last year will help them profit legally from medicinal cannabis, increasingly used to treat conditions including multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
Morocco — the world’s top producer of hashish according to the United Nations — lies on Europe’s doorstep and is potentially well placed to become a top legitimate exporter.
But a domestic crackdown on growers, slow progress in issuing licences for legal production and strong competition from European operators has left Rif farmers out in the cold.
“We’re still attached to this plant, but it has stopped giving us anything,” said Souad, a cannabis farmer in the village of Azila.
Like others interviewed, she did not want her real name to be published.
“Nobody wants it anymore,” Souad shrugged. “Our lives are hard now.”
Under a law the government approved in March last year, farmers will be able to form cooperatives to grow limited amounts of cannabis for processing and sale by licensed firms.
Souad, who still helps her sons on the family plot despite being in her 60s, holds tentative hope that this will help her community make a better living.
“If it’s serious, it’s a good thing,” she said.
Demand for the Moroccan product has dropped as legal, highly regulated, production in Europe has fed the market.
Moroccan farmers’ income from cannabis fell from €500 million a year in the early 2000s to less than €325 million in 2020, according to an interior ministry study last year.
“The market has fallen drastically,” said Karim, another grower.
Adding to the pressure, he was only able to farm part of his family’s land in Azila this year because of water shortages driven by the worst drought in decades.– AFP
Online Reporter