Weather & Science
Drought Gripping Morocco Is Bad Omen for Global Food Supplies
The nation’s unrelenting dry spell is ushering in record wheat imports and risking fruit and vegetable sales abroad.
A seedling breaks through the cracked earth of a cereal field in Berrechid, Morocco.
Photographer: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
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Mohamed Sadiri has farmed the same 3 hectares in western Morocco since 1963, and he’s never seen the land this parched.
Wheat yields plummeted last year to 1 ton per hectare (2.5 acres), his smallest harvest ever, as the worst drought period in three decades envelops the North African nation. The 25-foot-deep well on Sadiri’s plot dried up, and he can’t afford to dig any deeper. So now he’s trying barley, a more resilient crop.