Plant Organic Fruit Trees with African Farmers

Given that most poverty in the nation (and in the world) exists in rural places, and that Moroccan farmers are transitioning from traditionally growing barley and corn, the demand for more profitable fruit trees is very significant.  Growing fruit trees from seedlings on land lent by the Moroccan Jewish Community and distributing them in-kind to farming families not only meets a national development priority, but is also a substantial act of interfaith.  The reinvigorated relationships between the farming families and Jewish community members leads to deepened appreciation among the beneficiaries of these historic religious places (even as the burial sites have been totally respected ever since their beginning).  This multicultural initiative lends towards more goodwill due to the sustainable human development results, and in turn increased social unity and actions of cultural preservation. 

What maximizes the measure of solidarity (and project sustainability), however, is that the farming communities themselves identified fruit trees and their varieties as a development priority.  Therefore, the project responds to the expressed needs of the people, their associations and cooperatives and helps to deliver the development outcomes they seek, illustrating how cultural benefits can be maximized when participatory dialogue and planning is fully incorporated into their processes.