2023 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 38-44
Increasing water scarcity is lowering the agricultural production of the Tadla region in Morocco. This necessitates the Moroccan government to actively stimulate farmers about converting their irrigation systems from surface irrigation (furrow) to drip irrigation and subsidize the investment costs by 80%-100%. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify the impact of the drip irrigation system on the planning and management of water delivery after the conversion program from surface (furrow) irrigation to drip irrigation in the Beni Amir irrigation district on the right side of the Tadla region. The water management practices before and after conversion were gathered through discussions and interviews with officials and representatives of the management team responsible for the study irrigation scheme. An open questionnaire survey was also conducted, focusing on farmers’ irrigation management practices such as on-farm water distribution methods, application rate, water adequacy, and equity water satisfaction level before and after conversion, and the results were analyzed by paying attention to their farms’ upstream, midstream, and downstream locations. The analysis reveals that most of the interviewed farmers indicated satisfaction with equitable water distribution. Some variations in the water management system may occur due to the conversion project, such as an increase in irrigation time and increased cost and labor in water management. These will have an impact on the CDA’s (Agriculture Development Center) overall water management monitoring and planning at the tertiary canal, as well as farmers’ water management labor.
