Olive tree planting with 200 Moroccan families

On behalf of the High Atlas Foundation, Ramadan Kareem!

Currently, the High Atlas Foundation is obtaining organic certification for Moroccan agricultural products. Agricultural products marketed through a new social enterprise, High Atlas Agricutlure and Artisanal (HA3), will generate increased income for marginalized populations in Morocco and create a multiplied return.  These organic, fair-trade, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible products will empower rural Moroccans while simultaneously improving their standard of living through reinvestment.

Olive trees are integral to Morocco’s environment, agriculture, and culture.  One cannot imagine Moroccan cuisine without olives and olive oil!  In addition, olive trees are integral to the HA3 process, as organic certification of olives greatly improves their market value, increasing the income of farmers in Morocco. One of the concerns voiced to HAF over the years is how to break the cycle of subsistence agriculture. Here at HAF, we believe that by obtaining organic certification, income generated will be increased, and this added revenue can be reinvested in other initiatives, such as increased access to clean drinking water and education, acting as a vehicle for local empowerment.

Women’s empowerment, a crucial point of HAF’s participatory development model, is especially impacted in this project.  The semi-arid commune of Ait Wafqa, near Tafraoute in southern Morocco, is made up of eighty-percent women. While the men leave for work in urban areas, women manage the family farms, which are impacted by land degradation and poverty.  This project will plant and irrigate olive tres, combatting desertification, poverty, and improving the education and empowerment of its local citizens.

Meetings, mostly informational, have already taken place with community members and women. For irrigation, a geomembrane basin, which is one-third of the cost of a concrete basin, collects rainwater and creates enough pressure without requiring energy, has been constructed. Trainings and participatory workshops are planned, and olive tree cuttings have been identified. This project is on its way, and with continued support we can help improve the economic and environmental situation of these Moroccans.

To hear more about organic certification through HA3 and this new exciting chapter in HAF, view a message from HAF’s president, Yossef Ben-Meir here. Organic certification benefits not only the local communities, but reinvests in Morocco’s agriculture, environment, and education.

It’s olive planting season in Morocco!  Olives are a part of HAF’s innovative business model to sustainably address socioeconomic challenges with organic agricultural development. Organic certification of produce increases market value, which doubles household incomes thus ending the cycle of poverty. HAF has trained 820 farmers in organic farming techniques and is now marketing this produce internationally to generate added income, which will be reinvested into additional community-identified projects. This model provides a sustainable source of funding to implement projects identified in each community’s Communal Development Plan (which Moroccan law mandates that each commune create), including in resource management, health, education, and women’s and youth empowerment.

HAF’s social enterprise, called High Atlas Agricultural and Artisanal (HA³), has created an agricultural development process that is comprehensive, sustainable, and transferrable. It will generate income and is based on the expressed needs of the local population to increase their livelihoods. A percentage of the sale of agricultural organic raw and value-added products will bring transformative development to rural areas.  Certification of organic fruit and nuts significantly increases the value for family farmers.  HAF’s social enterprise will connect these products with global purchasers.  HAF’s training programs experientially teach agricultural technical techniques, natural resource management, professional skills for marketplace success, and participatory planning and management. Skills gained from these trainings advance the identification and implementation of projects. This approach combines technologic and business knowhow with optimal farming strategies to vastly improve livelihoods of rural families through sales of organic fruits and nuts, and in the future other products, while creating a revenue stream to enable HAF to reinvest in new agricultural and human development projects (such as in education and health). A percentage of the new revenue generated will return to HAF for the implementation of other community project priorities.