In just one year, the project was able to set in motion a real process of transforming the apple-growing area around the Imouzzer Kandar lakes into a new, more sustainable and efficient model. Despite the challenges, Sustain Sebou Farming has exceeded expectations, engaging a group of 166 farmers in several different approaches to saving groundwater, thereby exceeding the target of 3,090,001.8 m3.
Favorable weather conditions certainly contributed to this result, but it would not have been possible without the 54 plot diagnostics, 10 training workshops, 7 field schools and 3 intensive training sessions organized for local apple growers.
Sustain Sebou Farming has enabled the municipality of Dayet Aoua to have its first network of weather stations covering the crops grown around the three emblematic (and unfortunately threatened) lakes of Dayet Aoua, Dayet Ifrah and Dayet Hachlaf. Apple growers are currently adopting a new approach to climate-intelligent irrigation, with high-precision evapotranspiration data sent to them by SMS or WhatsApp, or consulted 24 hours a day on three electronic display panels. This network, backed up by a powerful software solution for modelling climatic parameters, now enables farmers to be warned of the risk of apple disease or pest proliferation. This will considerably reduce the use of pesticides and insecticides, as farmers will no longer have to use these chemical products in a random and unjustified manner.
7 members of the project steering committee (made up of representatives of local apple growers and several institutions) were also trained in best irrigation practices and benefited from knowledge-sharing with experts and stakeholders who are pioneers in the field of climate-smart irrigation.
5 demonstration projects have been set up with the support of local population on several plots of land, and are striving on a daily basis to promote best practices and the most effective techniques for rationalizing irrigation in the local apple farming.
