Peri-Urban Agriculture in the Metropolitan Area of Rabat, Morocco: Potentials and Constraints

Peri-urban agriculture (PUA) comprises a broad set of agricultural activities carried out in cities or in close proximity to cities. With increasingly permissive approaches to diverse livelihood strategies and open markets in agricultural inputs, services and products, urban dwellers are engaging in a range of agricultural practices. However, farming in the peri-urban is under strong pressure from urbanization. The economic, social and environmental roles of farming need to be better understood in order to integrate peri-urban agriculture into urban planning. The current study was aimed to assess practices, potentials and constraints of PUA in Rabat Metropolis. Fifty respondents were selected randomly to obtain significant information. Data collection from farmers was based on field observation, interviews and field surveys. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, Chi-square test, tests of normality and homogeneity of variances and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), were used. According to the major findings of the study, the major types of peri-urban farming practices in the study area includes: horticulture or production of fruits and vegetables, crop farming and some livestock rearing such as beef farming, sheep farming and poultry farming. The survey result reveals that there are various significances of PUA in the study area: it contributes to the economic development of the metropolis as it generates income for farmers, creates employment, contributes to food supply and enhances economic use of land and environmental beatification of the city. Results reveal also that legal constraints mainly the absence of laws regulating this activity and the obligation of some farmers in the peri-urban area to pay housing taxes and technical constraints such as insufficient workforce and high labor costs, difficult access to irrigation water, lack of training and technical supervision and support from the concerned body were the restraining forces to peri-urban agriculture growth in the area