But times are tough for local growers, whose activity, tolerated although officially prohibited, suffers from competition from hemp produced in Europe and from "slowness" in the implementation of a law adopted in 2021. legalizing medical cannabis.

"We remain attached to this plant and yet it no longer brings us anything", laments Souad (her first name has been changed), a hemp farmer in Azila in the town of Ketama.

"No one wants it anymore!".

"We are far from the glorious years. We live in difficult conditions", confides to AFP this sixty-year-old widow who continues to help her sons to clear the family plot of land.

To extricate herself from precariousness, she hopes a lot from the legalization of therapeutic cannabis.

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Morocco, the world's largest producer of hashish according to the UN, is trying to tighten the noose around the lucrative cannabis traffic, by betting on the law adopted in 2021 which regulates its industrial and medical uses.

This complex project is only in its infancy but, in the long term, the objective is to pull the rug out from under the feet of traffickers and position itself on the world market for legal cannabis.

The government also wants to economically open up the deprived region of the Rif, where hemp has been cultivated for centuries.

"Weak link"

"The market has fallen drastically. All we have left is prison," ironically Karim (first name changed) who was only able to grow part of the family land in Azila this year, "due to lack of sufficient demand and water (due to a historic drought: editor's note)".

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Annual agricultural income from cannabis has fallen from around 500 million euros in the early 2000s to less than 325 million euros in 2020, according to a study by the Ministry of the Interior published in May 2021.

"The farmer has always been the weak link in the chain, we are the ones paying the price, but legalization can be a way out," said the emaciated-faced 44-year-old farmer.

In addition to the risk of ending up in prison, growers only receive "4% of the turnover of the illegal circuit" against potentially "12% on the legal market", according to official estimates relayed by the MAP agency in 2021.

Souad also sees legal cannabis as a lifeline.

"If it's serious it's a good thing," she says.

In Azila as in other Riffian douars, the effect of the new legislation is not yet perceptible.

"Today, nothing has changed for us. We are still considered thugs, criminals, whereas we are only farmers," laments Nourredine (first name changed), another farmer.

The authorities want to be reassuring.

"There may be apprehension but legalization will dispel it because it will benefit farmers," said an official source in Rabat, on condition of anonymity.

"Pretty Things"

For the implementation of the project, "it is important not to rush", nevertheless argue the authorities: "There are stages to respect".

Initially, a dozen authorizations will be issued to Moroccan and international manufacturers for the processing of cannabis for therapeutic purposes, specifies the official source.

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Launched in June, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency (ANRAC), responsible for controlling the entire chain – from production to the marketing of hemp derivatives – is studying the first applications from interested industrialists.

Then, it is on the basis of the needs formulated by the latter that the farmers will be able to express themselves to the ANRAC and form cooperatives.

The 2021 law provides that "authorization for the cultivation of cannabis is only granted within the limit of the quantities necessary to meet the needs of the manufacturing activities of products for medical, pharmaceutical and therapeutic purposes".

Thus, only the inhabitants of the Riffian provinces of Al Hoceima, Chefchaouen and Taounate will be authorized to grow hemp.

In 2019, kif crops covered 55,000 hectares in the northeast of the kingdom, supporting between 80,000 and 120,000 families there, according to official figures.

Local association activists are mobilizing to explain the technical aspects of the project to the farmers.

"The work of mediation is complicated for procedural reasons. But if the approach of the authorities is inclusive, then beautiful things can be achieved", explains to AFP Soufiane Zahlaf, representative of the villagers of Azila where he is from. .

© 2022 AFP