The Social Role of Sugar Cane Cultivation in the Fertile Gharb Region of Morocco

Abstract

A special report had been achieved in the GHARB region of Morocco; known as a large plain with abundant pure water sources especially rivers such as the SEBOU permanent river and others, very heavy clay soil sometimes so dark, and a Mediterranean climate; those conditions ameliorate the rate of agricultural activities including unique ones such as Sugar cane/Rice/Tobacco, etc. Sugar cane plays a crucial role in the population’s lifestyle’s amelioration and stability by improving their social and economic conditions besides sustainable development. The report that designed four categories of population afterward chose one best representative of each category to interrogate. The analysis of the statements showed similarities with universal values harvested from sugar cane cultivation in addition to unique ones related to the unicity of the geographic, cultural, and demographic data.

1. Introduction

Sugar cane is a special plant in a large zone of the southern EARTH, relating to its nutritional value especially carbohydrates, and its socioeconomical role that covers securing jobs and using its products as alternative solutions for construction, energy even daily activities material.

We used the exploratory method to discover the development and sustainability that the sugar cane cultivation brings to the lives of people in the GHARB region of Morocco, based on our own method we name: targeted reporting; the method that categorizes the population according to its potential impact on the subject and chooses the best representative who has knowledge and expertise that touch the top. Four categories were detected: ancient peasants-ancient workers-History witnesses-New workers. Four persons to allocate an interesting amount of affirmations leading to an adaptive briefing on the topic.

How was the selection of participants managed ? And what is the size of the statement added by their testimony ? Is sugar cane cultivation considered a major contributor to moving the wheel of the economy and sustainable development ?

On one side, Sugar cane cultivation in GHARB region of Morocco has some unicity and special characteristics such as spreading new lifestyles and the multiple uses of its residues and leftovers; on the other side, it ensures the same needs it ensures in many other world regions as jobs, economic network activity, industrial development and securing the demand on sugar.

2. Sugar cane in the world: crop growth period varies by region

Most sugar cane is grown in subtropical and tropical regions, especially in Brazil and southern of Asia, before spreading to other world regions such as North Africa, and it is the principal source for extracting sugar after it comes sugar beet. Its cultivation needs fertile land and an important quantity of water and remains in the ground for a whole year, and the sugar factories are in the middle of the cane farms. The leftover cane is used in some para-agricultural activities such as the manufacture of alcohol famous in Brazil [1].

The people of the South Pacific islands were among the first to grow sugar cane to use its stems as stick, in a mixture of sand, clay, and silt particles with organic matter at a temperature of 20°C. To 7 meters long, it has long, sword-shaped leaves and a number of buds through which the crop propagates, with a density of 10000–25000 sugar canes per hectare [2].

In Australia, it takes 15 months to grow, while it takes 9 months in Louisiana in the USA. The sugar cane crop is harvested three times in dry and cold seasons that last for 6 months so that three economic crops are harvested from one original cultivation and after the end of the economic crops, all roots are uprooted, and the field is replanted again [2].

The soil must be fertilized with nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium fertilizers according to the nature of the soil and climatic conditions, as well as the use of chemical herbicides to eliminate weeds and damaged insects. Brown sugar is extracted from a brown liquid inside the hull of the sugar cane, and then the brown liquid is repeated to produce white sugar [3] .

Sugar crops have reached an important level of development, mainly due to the mechanization of crops and the introduction of new production technologies, noting that the combination of factors contributes to improving the raw incomes of producers by more than 10% for these two types of crops. The use of good seeds, early maintenance, irrigation, and appropriate climatic conditions contributed to the achievement of diabetic beet cultivation program and improved the status of sugar crops [4].

3. Sugar cane cultivation in Morocco (Region of Gharb Cherarda Benihessen)

Agricultural policy is reviewed in historical perspective, to show that the liberalization process, which was proposed in the framework of structural adjustment reforms, ran contrary to the agricultural development strategy followed by Morocco since Independence [5].

In Morocco, farmers benefited, for sugar cane production, from a subsidy of up to 6000 dirhams granted by the state, in order to make the new cultivated areas succeed, in addition to a grant of 3000 dirhams distributed between the state and the Moroccan Interprofessional Federation of Sugar to encourage early planting.​​​​

Given that the success of sugar plantations remains dependent on irrigation, the state, adds the official, launched the national program for saving irrigation water to encourage farmers to use techniques that contribute to rationalizing irrigation water (the drip irrigation system), noting that support rates range between 80 and 100%, depending on the area allocated [6]. To conserve the freshwater with which the sugar cane is irrigated, pivot and canal irrigation switched to drip, so the farmer consumes about 14%0 less water than before (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Sugar cane season Morocco 2018–2019.

The introduction of sugar cane in the region contributed to improving the individual income, as the economic situation of the families, who were living on nomadic livestock and cultivation of wheat and barley, has been improved

This cultivation activity suffered from intense competition from the other regions of the Kingdom, which are on the throne of grain production. The Gharb region also experiences more floods every year due to its low topography and the presence of the large and ever-flowing Sebou River, on which a dam was built in the outskirts of Fez. However, this infrastructure causes floods with the high water level during the winter season.

4. The role of cosumar sugar company in the Gharb’s Region’s sugar cane cultivation improvement

Cosumar Sugar Company “COSUMAR” is the first of its kind in the sugar industry in the Kingdom of Morocco, with a production capacity of more than 800,000 tons of white sugar annually. It is a public company listed since 1985 on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and was established in April 1929. The history of Cosumar merges with the beginning of the industrialization of the production of white sugar in Morocco. Formerly of artisanal manufacture, it was in 1929 that the first sugar refinery was created in Casablanca in the Roches Noires district. Let's discover the key dates that mark the history of this great Moroccan company [7].

As a major sugar Moroccan company, it was a given in recognition of the role played by the COSUMAR Group as an aggregator in the sugar chain. Indeed, COSUMAR is involved in all levels of the sugar chain, especially at the level of agricultural activity, with the aim of achieving a common goal: the development, competitiveness, and sustainability of the national sugar chain by encouraging the cultivation of cane Sugar and sugar beets. As COSUMAR, an investor in the food industry and a responsible and solidarity group, it keeps pace with its peasant partners at the financial, technical, and social levels, and the collection agreements that it brought and established by the Green Morocco Plan aim to strengthen the relationship in a win-win manner with its peasant partners. This aggregation role revolves around many activities, including:

• Funding support and technical and human supervision for sugar plant producers in order to obtain the best returns that help to achieve a significant increase in incomes.

• Ensure the transfer of the agricultural crop to the processing plants.

• Ensuring complete transparency in performance thanks to the modernization of the raw materials reception centers.

• Product purchase guarantee.

• Creation of a solidarity fund for the protection of farmers in the case of low yields due to climatic difficulties, within the framework of the Moroccan Interprofessional Federation of Sugar.

• Social support for peasant families [8].

5. History of sugar cane cultivation in Morocco

The sugar industry is not a novelty in the life of Morocco. Rather, it had in the past, as it may have in the future, a clear impact on the economy of our country, and even in its internal policy, as well as in its relations with some countries. However, drunkenness in ancient Morocco, unfortunately, did not receive the studies it deserves, and Moroccan history books have preserved for us only brief references about this vital substance. Perhaps it is useful to review in this hurry some aspects of the subject, so we know where sugar cane was grown, and where it was made, and then the relationship of sugar to the policy of the state at the time (Figure 2) [9].

Figure 2.

Map showing sugar cane India as the origin of the westward spread, followed by small areas in Africa and then smaller areas on atlantic islands west of Africa, https://stringfixer.com/ar, 14/8/2022.Morocco situation in the far Northwest of Africa with green spots showing sugar cane activities.

The first historians who spoke about Morocco in the form of Abu Hanifa al-Dinuri, Ibn Hawqal, al-Bakri, Ibn Khaldun, and others, all of them indicated that this agriculture was very prosperous in Morocco, and these references are almost nonexistent in what was written about Morocco before the advent of Islam as well as after the year 1615, which made us. We believe that the age of this prosperity began in Morocco with the Islamic conquest and that sugar cane was brought by the Arabs, just as they brought other crops such as orange trees. Consequently, sugar cane has lived in Morocco for a period equivalent to eight centuries, i.e., in the year 895 AD to the year 1615 AD. As for the places where this cultivation was known in Morocco, it is in the south of Morocco in particular [9].

We may be surprised if we learn that this cultivation was also in Mount Tanmal, the cradle of the Almohads, and near the city of Salé, as well as around the city of Ceuta. The ancients call the south of Morocco the Souss region, and by this name, they mean the area between Heri Chichaoua and the Draa Valley. It includes the mountainous Atlantic region adjacent to the sea, the Souss Valley, and the Little Atlas to the Draa Valley. This region was one of the most fertile regions of Morocco, if not the most fertile at all. The Moroccan travelers, nor historians, in describing a region of Morocco, did not mention this region. It was one of the most densely populated areas.

Al-Idrisi, in turn, pointed out that sugar cane is found in Souss; especially in the district of Taroudant; in Ceuta and Tibnmel. He said about the region of Souss: “The country of Souss has many villages, and their architecture is connected to each other, and there are great fruits of different types, and many types, such as walnuts, figs, grapes, apricots, pomegranates, peaches, apples, and reeds.” Sugar, which is not on the ground of the earth like it in length and breadth, sweetness, and abundance of water, works in the country of licorice from the sugar attributed to it that pervades most of the earth, and it is equal to Sulaymani sugar and tabarzad, rather it heals all types of sugar in goodness and purity. Regarding Jabal (mountain) Darn, Al-Idrisi says: “...that the people of this mountain do not sell it among themselves (i.e. sugar cane) nor buy it because of its abundance.” The owner of the insight also indicates that Taroudant, which is a large village, is the richest country in God with sugar cane, and that its mills are more numerous, carrying sugar from it to the rest of the countries of the Maghreb. After this pause on the territory of Souss, and after introducing it, we can identify the areas where sugar cane was cultivated and divide them into three groups:

1. The North Group, including Tangiers, Ceuta and Salé.

2. Al Haouz Group, including Chichaoua, Essaouira, the Qasab River Basin, Wadi Nafis, and Zaouia Sidi Chiker.

3. Souss group according to the aforementioned meaning. It is well known that this sugar cane cultivation will not be of any benefit as long as it is not manufactured and the industry needs a motive power, so from where did the technicians in this age obtain the motive power to accomplish this important work?

6. The impact of sugar cane cultivation in Gharb’s population life

This research was carried out as a reportage with farmers, workers, and producers who belong to the western region of Morocco, where sugar cane cultivation flourishes. The nomadic life changed and settled after the settlement of sugar cane cultivation in the region, where people settled for its production, neglecting the livestock breeding that used to occupy most of their activity. In order to rationalize the use of water and determine its quantity, center pivot and drip irrigation were introduced, which made the used amount reduced by half. Thus, the previously wasted water was preserved, especially the arable water, because the groundwater is characterized by a high salinity rate, which is difficult to exploit in agriculture. Also, the river Sebou is not close to all the farms and the horizontal canals that carry its water, as it was built during the French colonization of Morocco between 1912 and 1956. The vast area of ​​Gharb Chrarda does not feed Beni Hessen (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

2015, Kingdom of Morocco map, GHARB CHRARDA region in REd.

7. Method and discussion

To achieve our method of questioning that had the following purpose: highlight the social role of sugar cane cultivation in the fertile Gharb region of Morocco was needful to divide GHARB area’s population to four categories responding to the following directed questions:

• Who are the main players in the activities related to sugar cane cultivation?

• Was there a reversal impact between the enhancement of this population lifestyle and the introducing of sugar cane cultivation in the area?

• What are the sectors of the population life that were affected by this agricultural activity?

Responding to the questions above we have detected four interesting categories of people that are in a close and mutual attachment with sugar cane cultivation:

• New workers

• Peasants

• Ancient workers

• History witnesses

To find the perfect person for each category, we stand in touch for about a month with the population to achieve our goal. So four people were selected and interviewed first in their zone of living; second, we have completed the operation via WhatsApp application for instant chats.

8. Description of the operation

See Table 1.

Participant	Statute	Importance of the statement	Types of the testaments contributions	Category
MISS. Heba Al-Azeeb; « student/worker/resident »	Student	Important	Economic Geographic Social	New workers
Mr. Houssain Maymouni; « Farmer/resident »	Sugar cane Farmer	Important	Professional Historical	Peasant
Mr. Mohammed Alhafian; «retired/resident »	Retired worker	Verry impotant	Professional	Ancient workers
Hajja Ruqayyah Limouna; « resident »	Elder of a Gharb familly	Verry important	Social Cultural Historical	History witnesses

Table 1.

Description of the sample of the operation and their testaments.

9. Details and types of participants’ main contributions

Social:

• Replacement of The mud houses and tents by cement houses

• Infrasructure

• Settelment of many villages

• Demographic growth

• Prosperity of the social interaction

Economic:

• Securing jobs

• Economic boost of the region

• Commercial popularity

• Connecting regions economic network

Professional:

• COSUMAR as the mother factory of sugar raffination in the region

• The discription of the cultivation cycle

• Planting technics

• Preparation of the sticks for squeezing and stocking

10. Summary of the operation

MISS. Heba Al-Azeeb. The girl stated that sugar cane is cultivated in the direction of the Belkassiri town from Kenitra city, specifically in the lands or fields where mud is aboundant in the soil formulat. She added that the work is carried out on a random basis and not in an operating system without specified timing. The work in the fields starts from about 10 in the morning until sunset. The upper limbs of sticks are cut, leaves are removed, and it is peeled with knives by a group of female workers. The male laborer is responsible for planting and watering the reeds; and it is thrown on the ground; a solution of javel and water is thrown on it to facilitate the process of cleaning by another group of workers after rubbing and washing it well; another group performs. By collecting it in the form of groups of packages and making it stand and pouring water on it, then the owner comes to load it on tracks and distributes it to the mills where it is squeezed; in the case of free planting; or by COSUMAR company in the case of the contaractual planting. And this is the case throughout the year, the girl says, because the product is always in demand and many customers buy it. An expert peasant like Mr. Houssain Maymouni gifted a professional affirmation about the course of choosing and planting technics in GHARB region of Morocco, pointing that the most structured planting plan is the one that held by a contract with COSUMAR company. COSUMAR requires an area of the field to be 1 hectare owned in the name of the beneficiary as the reason of a contract redaction. According to Mr. Mohammed Alhafian, the ancient worker one contract for each hectare of land, he proceeded: factory committees come to ​​​​examine the land and water import possibilities before redacting the contract. They also investigate that the beneficiary is able to complete the task of planting and taking care of this planting and sugar cane germination according to the conditions agreed upon. This contract must be approved in the official departments between the factory and the farmer (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

Slogan edited by COSUMAR in 2018 to organize a yearly social cooperation compain, www.cosumar.co.ma 12/08/2022.

By signing a contract the factory releases the planting seedlings according to conditions and controls. With regard to irrigation, the farmer; after the contract with the sugar factory is issued; writes a request to the Office of Water and Electricity, so that in that request he shows the contract that is required of him to follow its provisions for cultivation, and determines its place, then writes the application and signs it and puts it under the officials of the Office. Water expenses are paid every year after the harvest. Both participants described the preparation of land to start by aeration and mashing using fertilizers at the farmer’s expense and with his own effort. With regard to agriculture in Morocco, the state specified that between tow seedlings there should be a distance of one and a half meters. The sapling is struck at the top to open it, then another sapling is placed on top of it, and this unit or this compound is planted. After the process is completed, fertilizers are also added on top of the planting. The previous operations include a large workforce mostly from the region that increases social cooperation, but there are disadvantages too: The by-products produced during processing and refining procedures are discussed along with the ways that they affect the environment. The wastes produced by sugar mills are also shown to result in heavy metal contamination and parasitic and bacterial infections [10]. Hajja Ruqayyah Limouna, an 84-year-old lady, conforms that disadvantages such as the allergy she had don’t cover the huge benifict, so she added that mud houses, huts, and tents were replaced by cement houses, roads constructed, and settled villages appeared after the construction. The SWEET GOLD increased celebrations such as weddings, engagements, national and religious holidays, to become more resonant and very fascinating. Stability and organizing the annual income had a great impact on food habits, meals and ingredients have become diversified, the prosperity of livestock breeding and selling and the increase in demand for it (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

WIKIHOW [11], cultivation of sugar cane, www.wikihow.com 15/8/2022.

On the environmental level, Mr. Maimouni says that the atmosphere has become more humid and the high temperatures have decreased, as well as the disappearance of sand and dust storms because of the sugar cane fields that act as pumps for water vapor, as well as natural barriers.

Also, the places of spread of insects that abound during the period of heat and humidity have been redistributed. They find refuge in his fields, and they are reduced in the places of the population. Also, rodents have multiplied and their number is equal to the number of poisonous reptiles that provide food for them.

Heba Al-Azaib continued citing that sugar cane fields are a haven for nesting and hatching many poultry, such as ducks and turkeys, as well as wild chickens and turkeys, which are birds that have been domesticated and bred since ancient times, but they did not retreat and remained with these fields a basic activity The region and another source of profit and food.

As for Muhammed Al-Hafyan, he said that the sugar cane residues in the sugar refinery were burned, but recently it has been sent to centers for thermal energy extraction experiments, while in the village the older cane is used to feed livestock and to bake bread inside the clay ovens, and these residues are recovered after drying them are mashed as a support for the silt that covered the walls of mud houses, huts, and traditional stables, as well as poultry and livestock houses.

When sugar cane is grown, they exploit its product for a period of about 3–4 years, after which they extract it from seed and plant a new one to give a more profitable production. Method of work: Its upper limbs are cut, leaves are removed, and it is peeled with knives by a group of female workers, and it is thrown on the ground and a solution of javel and water is thrown on it to facilitate the process of washing it by another group of workers after rubbing and washing it well, another group performs. By collecting it in the form of groups of packages and making it stand and pouring water on it to complete its washing, then its owner comes to load it on his cart and distributes it to the owners of the mills where it is squeezed. And this is the case throughout the year, the girl says, because the product is always in demand and everyone buys it. As for the hardship of work, of course it must be, especially since the girls work using the Javel (chlore) solution, and the cane must make its scratches, which sometimes have severe injuries, knowing that everyone knows that this is the case, because the operator has made them aware of that at first. Wages are paid weekly every Friday. He states that if the area of the field is hectares, then they plow with the big plow, and this plowing process is followed by other stages, such as the process of cherub and combing the field well, forming compact lines, and they put compost in it, they call it ~ dust ~ and then they plant the reeds after selection, examination and good and carefully purification, that is, the branch that will be planted is purified from any dirt or rotten leaves, and they leave one pure leaf to cover what they call the eye of the branch, which they give very carefully in the process of planting, after which they put the compost. Mr. Maymouni adds that Type 65 is a good variety with good quality and juice production. The stalk of this type is white, with a distance of 20 centimeters between its rings, and this type is good. He also adds that the types of cane are numbered. Before proceeding to the germination of sugar cane, a contract is drawn up with the sugar factory associated with the Gharb Chararda Benihessen region. Planting and when the factory or factory committees will come to harvest, and this contract is issued for each hectare of land. The only free farming, farming for sale to sugar cane juice makers, is very small-scale farming, the farmer said. Preparing the land is at the expense of the farmer, as he plows and aerates the soil many times using a mechanical plow and also using daily farmers and also using a traditional plow with the help of an animal, in order to prepare the soil for the cultivation of sugar cane. The farmer contributes to the harvest, but for carrying, cleaning, and making use of the sugar cane, this costs the factory, starting from carrying it from the harvest area to the factory. Farmers do not start preparing the land for cultivation by the process of preparing the land is also done with regard to irrigation, the farmer Madame (Figure 6).

Figure 6.

Youssef [12], Cosumar logo and its promotion for its support thouward population’s creation and development.

11. Conclusion

The female farmer choses sugar cane as an activity, which is an important percentage of the families. The mud houses and tents were replaced by cement houses, and the activity of cutting the road, which polluted their reputation. There are three religious worships: Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and the birthday of the Prophet Eid Al-Fitr comes after the end of Ramadan, and it is the first day of breaking the fast, and its first date is in the month of Shawwal according to the Hijri calendar. On this Eid, a special prayer is held in the morning, followed by a varied and carefully prepared Iftar feast. People wear the most beautiful clothes and visit the people of the dead in the cemetery. Stability in which there is life, Abdul-Fitr is also linked to giving out an obligatory charity called zakat, and the people of zakat are the poor, and your presence in a stable place periodically gives charity to the same poor, you. There is a purely Moroccan activity, which is the celebration of the end of the agricultural seasons, which is a festival held in a public place in the wealthy and lasts for a week in which tents are built and all foodstuffs and tools are sold. The stealth race of a group of cavalry with simultaneous firing of gunpowder from their rifles. Each village has its own troop of horses and a herd of purebred Berber horses. The Western region has become competitive with other regions after it has known agricultural growth and economic boost since the 1970s of the twentieth century, and these celebrations are still being held so far, and the Western cavalry teams are still occupying advanced positions. The stable social and economic situation created by the sugar cane cultivation introduction made the need for infrastructure urgent, so roads were supplied and the number of primary, middle, and secondary schools increased as well as the spread of police stations, the royal gendarmerie points, post offices, municipal building; a decrease in rural immigration toward urban compounds were observed; besides, young population have kept living in the rural zone so agricultural activities remain in its vital cycle. Sugar cane growers and ivestissors participate to the establishing of a sustainable life because they often associate with them day laborers, agricultural technicians, farmers, mechanics, sellers of agricultural tools and fertilizers, drivers, and food investissors. This network, created due to this agricultural activity continuum, creates an acceptable to moderate living situation for thousands of families. Improving wages and intensifying efforts to protect the environment from the effects of the remnants of sugar refining activities, in addition to establishing associations and cooperatives for medical treatment and supervision, has become a requirement of activists in the sector [13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19].

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to:

• Miss. Heba laazib “student from OULED SLAMA rural commune”

• Mr. Houssain Maymouni « Farmer/resident of MOGHRANE rural commune »

• Mr. Mohammed Elhafyane « retired and resident of SID LKAMEL rural commune »

• Hajja Ruqayyah Limouna « Elder/resident of OULED SLAMA rural commune»

On the environmental level, Mr. Maimouni says that the atmosphere has become more humid and the high temperatures have decreased, as well as the disappearance of sand and dust storms because of the sugar cane fields that act as pumps for water vapor, as well as natural barriers. Also, the places of spread of insects that abound during the period of heat and humidity have been redistributed. They find refuge in his fields, and they are reduced in the places of the population. Also, rodents have multiplied and their number is equal to the number of poisonous reptiles that provide food for them.