HM the King launched the building works of a unit for dates' development and preservation in the Bni M'hamed Sijilmassa rural commune (15 mln dirhams) and the implementation of an integrated project for date palms in the El Khorbat oasis in the Ferkela Al Oulia rural commune (75 mln MAD).

 Part of the Moroccan Green Plan Pillar II, these projects seeks to ameliorate productivity through supervision actions (training/dissemination), the development of social aggregation tools and the implementation of institutional innovations to address water challenges.

 The Bni M'hamed Sijilmassa date storage and upgrading unit will benefit 252 farmers and enable packaging around 1,250 tons of dates per year, storing 400 tons/year, increasing the valued added of 32 million of dirhams per year and ameliorating the income of farmers from 15,000 to 25,000 dirhams per hectare.

 The fourth of its kind in the province, the unit is an integral part of an ambitious program (82.5 mln MAD) which enabled the creation of six economic groupings, and the organization of 12 training sessions for farmers. The said program provides for increasing the number of such units up to six by end of 2014.

 The integrated project for date palm development in the El Khorbat oasis benefits over 800 farmers and stretches over a surface area of 1,200 ha (74,000 date palms). It provides for carrying out several water and agriculture facilities, replanting and rehabilitating traditional oases (500 ha), upgrading production and offering technical supervision for farmers.

 HM the King, on this occasion, symbolically planted a date palm to mark the launch of the El Khorbat integrated project, and visited the diversion dam built under the same project.

 The Monarch also symbolically handed agricultural equipment to local date palm cooperatives organized under five economic groupings.