Irrigation Systems for Fruit Trees in Africa

By Kimberlee John

HAF Summer Internship

During the week of 07/07/17,  I spent Wednesday and Thursday shadowing Amina, Project Manager at High Atlas Foundation, through a packed schedule full of visits throughout Marrakech, surrounding villages, and business meetings. The first day was spent at theAboghlou Women’s cooperative in Ourika with representatives from Pur Projet, an organization based in Paris with which HAF has a partnership. The HAF is currently working alongside these this organization as well as the Women’s cooperative in order to maintain plant nurseries located in the Ourika valley.

This project is a true collaboration effort between the different groups. The women varied in ages and backgrounds but were able to come together for this project and listened intently to details about the upcoming activities. They were also able to voice their opinions about the projects and various members from any of the teams vocalized any improvements they thought could be made to the accessories being developed or the program plan as a whole.

Thursday was spent traveling between village located in the High Atlas Mountains as well as an extensive visit in the Ourika plant nursery. The day began bright and early as we arrived at the nursery in the early morning and stayed there for the majority of the morning. We walked around and observed the state of the plants as well as spoke with the women from the cooperative who were in the midst of tending to the soil and manual irrigation. 

The women were kind enough to invite us to tea during their breakfast break where we all sat around, ate, and cherished each other’s company. Laughs were plentiful as a photographer from the Pur Project took portraits of the women individually and various topics were discussed. Afterwards, the team explored the nursery in greater detail as well as the small house that was being built in order to supply a space for the women for them to eat, drink, and use the bathroom.

In the afternoon, we visited two sites; Tamzidrt located in the Setti Fadma commune or municipality and Segur in the Ourika commune. Specifically, in the Ourika valley, the focus was on a project concerning carbon offset monitoring, as HAF wants to aid in the reduction in emissions of carbon monoxide and similar greenhouse gases in order to offset an emission made elsewhere. The monitoring is implemented by HAF’s dedication to increasing the presence of certain species like trees and different types of fruits and partnering with farmers in the valley in order to do so.  The farmers and project managers explained the whole list of potential problems concerning the project such as how to track and number all of the trees in order to not lose track of product as well as the protecting the plants from any threats such as animals.

Upon visiting the two different villages, it was evident that there were major issues concerning the projects located in these regions, which were partially linked to Pur Projet as well as simply aiding the farmers in these villages. One of the main problems was the water supply and providing proper irrigation in order to get the water from its source through a basin and to the fields. There was the issue of deeming priorities in the region as well as how much money from the project should go to each region and for what purpose.

It is clear that HAF’s strengths and core competencies are its local connections and ability to plant, due to its base in Morocco. This heightens HAF’s importance in the partnership, while the project with Pur Project and is in its first year and hopefully if all goes well, it can be extended and the relationship can blossom into a multiple year initiative.

Everyone I met throughout the two days was incredibly welcoming and inviting.  As one of my first excursions during my internship with High Atlas Foundation, this trip was a great welcome into the kind of work that HAF has been doing and is known for.

The difficulty of working through language barriers was prominent as Amina often had to translate between French and Arabic during the conversation between members of the cooperative and the Pur Projet Team. On the other hand, it was fascinating to see the richness and importance of languages as during a business meeting the next day, English, French, and Arabic were spun around the table, everyone speaking with ease and knowing exactly how to communicate, serving as a perfect example of how all of the groups are able to join together in harmony on this project.    

Kimberlee John is a senior at Dartmouth College, where she studies Romance Languages and Global Health. She is a summer intern with the High Atlas Foundation and looks forwards to spending the summer exploring sustainable development and agriculture with HAF