Grow Trees and Offset Carbon with African Farmers

Project assistant Hassan, volunteer Mohammed, and project manager Said traveled to Ouarzazate to meet local associations, cooperatives, and community members to talk about the new fruit tree nursery that is in partnership with the Moroccan Jewish community, National Initiative for Human Development, the provincial governor's office and other public agencies. We planned the implementation of the nursery with the local community. They decided the tree varities they want to grow and discussed their working together with local partners to make this project successful.  We started our meeting in the afternoon - women, men, and youth all together. Thirty-two people represented the local villages in the region of the nursery. Most of the farmers expressed that their fruit tree priorities are almond, walnut, cherry, and fig. The meeting was very positive and the people look forward to digging to build the new nursery on land nearby the Hebrew saint ''David Ou Moche''.

With USAID Farmer-to-Famer Volunteer Anne, we had a four hour meeting with the members of Oulad Abdellah pomegranate cooperative in Beni Mellal and local farmers. Anne collected needed information toward the development of a business plan to produce pomegranate juice, as well as discussed with the cooperative members their visions for future growth and roles. The meeting also helped strengthen the relation between larger growers in the area and the coopertive's members, who continue to consider ways they can enhance their collaboration. Together, we also visited the pomegranate festival, which allowed us to get a clear idea about pricing to help support the business plan.

The High Atlas Foundation met 20 Salaam Fellows of the Open Hands Initiative who are from the U.S.A and Morocco. They came together in Morocco to build understanding and capacities around conflict resolution and gain real-world understanding of managing different interests toward sustainable reconciliation and development. Amina, HAF's projects director, and Errachid, HAF's project manager of the F2F USAID program, presented HAF's major programs to advance its sustainable development mission in Morocco, through facilitating participatory community planning and assisting in implementing priority projects in agriculture, health, education and empowerment. Later during their stay in Moroccon, the 20 fellows visited two project sites in the Ourika Valley, and met with community and cooperative members to hear from them about their experiences, challenges, and initiatives going forward.  Thank you, Kelly Fitzsimmons Photography, for the photos.