AFC to implement a new project in Morocco

AFC together with its partners EuroConsultants (Belgium) and Agriconsulting (Morocco) was awarded the service contract for the project: Training, Technical Assistance and Strengthening of Beneficiaries, Professional Organizations and Service Providers within the Date Value Chain in Selected Oasis Regions. Executing agency: Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Financing agency: MCA Morocco Start/completion: 07/2010 – 09/2013 Total budget: 6,160,209.-- EURO The Millennium Challenge Council (MCC) has granted a budget to Morocco for supporting economic growth and for enhancing productivity and employment in potential growth sectors. The service contract awarded to AFC “Training, Technical Assistance and Strengthening of Beneficiaries, Professional Organizations and Service Providers within the Date Value Chain in Selected Oasis Regions (TC-5B)” is part of the MCA Fruit Cultivation Pro-ject (PAF) which aims at promoting the cultivation and marketing of perennial fruit crops in various provinces of Morocco. The project is implemented in five provinces in the South-East of Marocco (Errachidia, Figuig, Tata, Tinghir and Zagora) with project offices in Errachidia and Zagora. The services provided by the AFC let consortium within this contract are grouped into three fields of work: Training, technical assistance and organisationel development to date producers / oasis farmers, their families, and their associations Training and technical assistance to date processors, including storage, packaging and marketing of date products Support to pilot projects for rural women and female groups. The contract aims to enhance the date palm production techniques by combining local knowledge with international innovations. Capacity development of actors in the date value chain from input supply to commercialization, taking into consideration good agricultural practices as well as the fluctuations of the market is a key factor of the service delivered by AFC. Professional associations will be developed along the value chain of date production and processing, enhancement of their technical, economic and management capacities with regard to an enlargement of their frame of action and an intensification of their activities. Main focus of consulting services will be the vertical integration of suppliers, producers, trad-ers and processors within the date value chain by setting up sustainable and equitable part-nerships as well as the overall integration of women and female groups into the value chain. In order to contribute to a dynamic intensification of investments in oasis zones, financial services and incentives for investment in the date value chain will be further facilitated.