UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉN Centro de Estudios de Postgrado Trabajo Fin de Máster DESCRIPTIONTrabajo Fin deOF Máster THE STATE OF OLIVE GROVES IN MOROCCO Alumno/a: Tabet, Ouiame Tutor/a: Prof. D. Julio Calero González Centro de Estudios de Postgrado Departamento: Geología Máster en Análisis, Conservación y Restauración de Componentes Físicos y Bióticos de los Hábitats de los y Bióticos Físicos de Componentes y Restauración Conservación Análisis, en Máster Noviembre, 2020 1 El Tutor da el Visto Bueno para entregar y defender su Trabajo Fin de Grado/Máster Jaén, a 01 de septiembre del 2020 Ouiame Tabet Dr. Julio Calero Autora Tutor 2 ABSTRACT The olive tree is a traditional agrosystem around the Mediterranean, when pedoclimatic conditions (soils, climate, geology) are optima for its development. It is ordinary to find this tree in Morocco where it has been present for centuries, but they are troubled with several problems related with its environmental, social and economic sustainability, as water scarcity, soil degradation or loss of rural working days. Olives groves are now the subject of a development plan to not only keep the Kingdom at its current level (2nd world producer for canned olive and 6th for oil olive oil) but to conquer new markets on a global level and thus interest from the craze that this oil known for its benefits. The “Green Morocco” national plan allows, thanks to substantial subsidies, to renew the existing orchards with the traditional “picholine variety” from Morocco and planting of new varieties in super-intensive in order to intensify as much as possible new orchards. The same for the transformation of olives into good quality oil with the installation of modern crushing units which should eventually supplant the multitude of "Maâsra" and thus reduce the environmental impact due to the water sprouts. In the future, the olive will only be represented by its oil and its edible forms, but the residues from its extraction will be valued either in the form of fuel produced for the pomace, or in the form of a base of green chemistry for the refinery by-products. Keywords: traditional agrosystems, water pollution, soil degradation, social sustainability 3 CONTENTS 1. Introduction. .......................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Justification of this work. ................................................................................... 7 1.2. Objectives: ........................................................................................................... 10 2. Methods .............................................................................................................. 10 3. Results and Discussion ....................................................................................... 11 3.1. A historical and socio-economical insight of olive groves in Morocco. ............. 11 3.1.1. Introduction and historical development ....................................................... 12 3.1.2. Main areas of olive groves in Morocco. ........................................................ 14 3.2. Pedoclimate and landscape conditions of the Moroccan olive groves. ............... 18 3.2.1. Geological framework ................................................................................... 18 3.2.3. Soil typologies in Morocco. .......................................................................... 27 3.2.4. Olive mill by-products valorisation............................................................... 39 3.3. Fertilization. ......................................................................................................... 42 3.3.1. General concerns. .......................................................................................... 42 3.3.2. Macronutrients .............................................................................................. 44 3.3.3. Micronutrients ............................................................................................... 47 3.4. Pest and diseases and main control strategies. ..................................................... 48 3.4.1. Main diseases and pests affecting olive groves in Morocco. ........................ 48 3.4.2. Sustainable olive pest control ........................................................................ 51 3.5. Challenges of water resource management: irrigation and salinity. .................... 54 3.5.1. hydric economy of the olive tree ................................................................... 54 3.5.2. Management of scarce water resources. ........................................................ 56 3.5.3. Soil salinization. ............................................................................................ 58 3.5.4. Soil erosion. ................................................................................................... 58 3.6. Climate change challenges ................................................................................... 59 3.7. Market challenges. ............................................................................................... 60 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 63 References ...................................................................................................................... 64 4 INDEX OF FIGURES Figure 1 Factors related to agricultural sustainability. ..................................................... 9 Figure 2 Main Provinces of Morocco. ............................................................................ 14 Figure 3 Regions of morocco after the administrative reorganization in 2015 .............. 15 Figure 4 Distribution of the national olive orchard by agricultural zones ..................... 17 Figure 5 Morocco mountain ranges ................................................................................ 19 Figure 6 Geological domains of Morocco ...................................................................... 19 Figure 7 Olive groves in the steeps of Tafraoute, Province of Tiznit ............................ 21 Figure 8 Rainfed terraced olive groves over Paleogene carbonates in Amizmiz ........... 22 Figure 9 Irrigated olive groves over Quaternary materials near to Amizmiz ................. 23 Figure 10 Traditional olive groves over Flysch units, Province of Ouezzane ............... 24 Figure 11 Annual rainfall in Morocco ............................................................................ 26 Figure 12 Köppen climate types of Morocco ................................................................. 27 Figure 13 of dominant soils in Morocco ........................................................................ 29 Figure 14 Traditional orchard in Bellouta ...................................................................... 34 Figure 15 Old traditional oil mill: Maâsra. ..................................................................... 37 Figure 16 Olive mil pomace stored in an agricultural cooperative in Bellouta, Province of Ouezzene. ................................................................................................................... 39 Figure 17 map of the spatial distribution of organic matter in the sandy soils (rmel) of the Doukkala plain. ......................................................................................................... 46 Figure 18 map of the spatial distribution of potassium in hydromorphic soil of the Province of Khemisset. ................................................................................................... 47 Figure 19 map of the spatial distribution of pH in the Cambisols (Hamri) of Sidi Kacem. ........................................................................................................................................ 48 5 INDEX OF TABLES Tableau 1 Equivalence of main classification systems for Morocco soils. .................... 31 Tableau 2 Interpretation of nutrient levels. .................................................................... 44 Tableau 3 List of the most important phytophagous insect and mite species infesting olive tree in Morocco. ..................................................................................................... 50 Tableau 4 Effects of water deficit on olive growth and production processes. .............. 56 Tableau 5 Principes to analyse the environmental sustainability of the soil of olive systems ........................................................................................................................... 59 6 1. Introduction. 1.1 Justification of this work. According to the FAOSTAT (2019), Morocco is the fifth country in olive production around the world, with a total production of 1,039,117 t, which supposes the 4,98% of the total. Also, Morocco has increased his olive oil production more than a 50% (55%) in the last 25 years, being the second country of the top 10 producers which the highest increase after Portugal. (Vilar et al., 2015). If we compare the last two seasons for which we have data (2017-2018 and 2018-2019), there have been increases of 22% in olives and of 43% in olive oil, increasing the latter from 140,000 t to 200,000 t (Medias 24, 2020). The consumption of olive oil has also increased very significantly in Morocco in the last 25 (average for the 2009-2015 period), rising to 113.5 x 106 t year-1 or 3.5 kg person-1 year-1 (Fellahtrade, 2018). Again, it supposes an increase of 88%, the