Morocco said Wednesday it will launch a nearly $1 billion aid programme to help its agriculture industry, which has been hit hard by a particularly acute drought in recent years.

The emergency plan "aims to mitigate the effects of delay in rainfall, to alleviate the impact on agricultural activity and to provide assistance to the farmers and livestock breeders affected", the royal palace said in a statement.

The plan will cost a total of 10 billion dirhams ($1 billion).

Despite hopes of a reprieve from the drought, the national rainfall average is 75 millimetres, down two thirds compared to a normal season, the royal cabinet said.

And dam reserves have plummeted, filled at a level of just 33 percent as of Wednesday, compared to 48 percent this time last year, official data showed.

The kingdom's economy, already hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, is heavily dependent on agriculture, which contributes 12 percent of GDP.

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Hunger crisis threatens half of Somalia's young children: UN
Geneva (AFP) Feb 15, 2022
Severe drought risks pushing nearly half of Somali children under five into acute malnutrition this year, with hundreds of thousands needing life-saving treatment, the UN warned Tuesday, calling for urgent action. "Malnutrition has reached crisis levels," said Victor Chinyama, head of communications for the UN children's agency UNICEF's Somalia operations. "The time to act is now," he told reporters in Geneva via video-link, cautioning that "if you wait until things get worse, or until famine is ... read more