Green Illusions in Morocco: Climate Policy, Water Scarcity, and the Hidden Social Costs of Agricultural Modernization

supporting small farmers in marginal areas with financial investments of 104 billion dirhams(40% public and 60% private), However, our ethnographic research shows that, under Moroccan conditions, this new environmental policy tends to be associated with high agricultural intensity and a shift to more water-intensive crops, which are incompatible with the country's environmental conditions. The Green Morocco Plan not only promotes the development of production chains and marketing routes and the doubling of agricultural production and exports, but also encourages competition for resources, ignores drought and climate change, and contradicts the country's hydrological reality, contrary to what is advertised. We identify contradictions in official discourse and policies, and show how current policies lead to social conflicts that reflect how natural resources (water) are managed at the level of agricultural and industrial investment. Recognizing the importance of the relationship between natural resources and the characteristics of the political, economic and social structure, this paper seeks to uncover the constants and transformations resulting from new development/agricultural trends. This is achieved by observing the role of these trends in creating social tensions in several Moroccan regions, in the context of the declaration of a state of water emergency.