🇲🇦 The cattle breeds of Morocco

Sheep and cattle are Morocco's most widespread livestock, raised across the country within mixed farms. Herds meet the nation's meat needs, while dairy self-sufficiency remains a goal still being chased. Cattle share a landscape of cereals in the rainy northwest and irrigated olives and citrus on the Atlantic plains, in a farm sector that employs nearly a quarter of the workforce and faces drought every third year.

• Sheep and cattle are the most widespread livestock in Morocco
• Morocco produces enough meat to meet its own needs
• Dairy self-sufficiency is a national goal still being pursued
• Drought strikes Morocco on average every third year
• Farming employs 23.4% of Morocco's workforce

Cattle in Morocco

Farming employs about 23.4 percent of Morocco's workers and accounts for roughly 15 percent of the economy, and animals are a broad part of that world. Raising livestock is a widespread practice, with sheep and cattle the animals most often kept. Herds share the countryside with cereals grown without irrigation in the rainy northwest, and with olives, citrus fruit and wine grapes on the Atlantic plains, watered largely by artesian wells. The same variable climate shapes them all: drought comes on average every third year and is the sector's main brake, and climate change is expected to bear down on farming heavily. Morocco covers its own demand for meat and is still trying to supply all its dairy from home herds. With seven in ten of the poor living in rural areas, livestock remains part of a household's livelihood alongside the crops.

Milk, butter and beef

Meat is the clearest output of Moroccan cattle: the country produces enough to cover its own requirements from home herds. Milk is a different story, as Morocco is still trying to supply all the dairy it consumes itself. The farm exports that reach European markets are chiefly crops, such as oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, olives and olive oil, rather than goods from cattle. For rural families, animals matter as part of a mixed livelihood in a sector where most of Morocco's poor live, and where a bad drought year can cut output across the board.

Today

Cattle keeping sits inside a farm sector under strain. Farming employs about 23.4 percent of Morocco's workers, contributes roughly 15 percent of the economy, and is expected to be hit hard by climate change, with drought returning on average every third year. The country meets its meat needs from home herds and keeps working towards dairy self-sufficiency. Reform is moving too: farming lost its full tax exemption in 2013, and from 2014 larger agricultural businesses, those turning over more than 5 million dirhams, pay progressive company tax.