Idir’s Well: An Agricultural Case Study in the Faija Plain of Morocco’s Middle Drâa Valley

by Tracy Valcourt

We travel the road for some time before turning left to mount a small plateau to arrive at the farm. This is what I see: a small earthen hut with a bamboo canopy for shade, to the right is a tarped bamboo structure and in front of it is the foundation for a structure referred to by Idir as “le chateau,” which will be a built by the time this project comes to an end (Figs. 1-3). A short distance from the hut is a series of solar panels, and a small building, housing a shower and a toilet. Two olive trees stand at the canopy’s edge, spaced at a distance that roughly echoes the width of the door. Underneath the canopy, there is a set of garden chairs and a table. Heavy-bodied, fuchsia-coloured Bougainvillea overhang a fence opposite the bamboo structure collaborate to form the boundaries of a casual courtyard sheltered from the wind. Beyond the fence is the well.

Beyond being a source of irrigation for his crops, Idir wanted the well to serve as a community resource for nomads and their grazing herds. He hopes to one day establish another in the area, for this exclusive use. I have returned to the Middle Drâa Valley in southeastern Morocco with the intention of speaking with select nomads who frequent the well to understand its respective importance and to learn how drought and climate change are affecting their way of life. However, on my arrival in December 2024, there are no nomads in the area, having migrated, according to Idir, closer to one of the mountains at the edge of the plain. Although movement towards the mountain is seasonally dictated, their marked absence, explains Idir, is indicative of environmental duress linked to other factors such as poverty, migration to cities or transformation to Bedouin lifestyles through settlement on tribal land. According to a 2014 census, the Drâa-Tafilalet region of the Drâa River Basin had a population of 1,635,008, of whom 25,000 were Amazigh nomads. This number represents a 60% decrease from a census taken ten years earlier, and it is anticipated that a 2024 census will show the number halved again, with just 12,000 Amazigh nomads remaining in Morocco.[1]

Idir reports that signs of local environmental decline became more evident to him around 1995, via the degradation of the oases that make up the MDV, brought on by the cumulative effects of infrastructural development and climate change. Of marked significance among these developments was the construction of El Mansour Eddahbi Dam on the Drâa River in 1972. Built to supply water to the increasing needs of a growing population and to produce hydropower, the dam decreased the chances of flooding, but also permanently altered the natural flow of the Drâa River and negatively affected aquifer recharge rates in the valley (Johannsen et al., 2016; Ait Hamza, 2010, 63). The combined consequences of drought and the dam construction, along with government-sponsored agricultural initiatives, provided pressured encouragement for nomads to convert to farmers via a tribal land endowment program. The conversion amounted to a massive sudden sedentarisation of Amazigh nomads who had traditionally roamed with herds of sheep or goats, which, by extension, affected how water and land were used (Aït Hamza et al., 2009) (Fig. 4). Built on the southern side of the High Atlas, near the town of Ouarzazate, the dam was accompanied by a system of water distribution canals and the establishment of a new government-imposed distribution schedule whose benefits were unequally dispersed, with farmers upstream faring better than those further downstream (Silva-Novoa Sánchez, 2024). In response to the restrictions imposed by this new system and facilitated by more affordable pumps, farmers began to dig more wells and expand ground-water farming, particularly in the lands surrounding the oases, which led to further depletion of underground aquifers.

Idir’s farm is located in Tagourt, roughly eight kilometres southwest of Zagora city, in the extension area of the Ternata oasis. Tagourt is part of an area known as the Faija Plain (or El Faija),[2] which is a 1,000 km2 annex of the 200km belt of six aligned oases that make up the Middle Drâa Valley (MDV).[3] Historically, agriculture has been the main occupation in the MDV, with more than 70% of the local population currently depending on relatively small-scale commercial or subsistence farming that uses stratified production techniques combining date palms, fruit trees, and annual grain crops (Silva-Novoa Sánchez  et al., 2024; Karmaoui et al., 2015; Karmaoui, 2019). The MDV makes up the lower section of the Drâa River Basin, an area that covers approximately 115,000km2, home to Morocco’s longest river at a length of 1,100km. Extending from the southern slopes of the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Desert, the basin is considered the one of the world’s driest (Hssaisoune et al. 2020; Ouysse et al. 2010; Revenga et al. 1998).        

The Faija Plain is surrounded by a series of mountains whose collected rainwater replenishes the underground alluvial aquifer: Jbel Bani lines the southern edge, the Drâa River and the Fezouata Oasis border the east, while Jbel Boujniba and Jbel Boukhachba flank the northern and northwestern edges. The majority of the region’s watermelon is produced on the Faija, while more recently, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes have grown in popularity due to the water-intensive nature of watermelon cultivation. In 2000, the expansion of global markets created an international demand for watermelons, and the area was quickly identified by investors as ideal for early-season production, giving them a competitive edge in supplying European markets (Silva-Novoa, 2024, p.104). By roughly 2007, a watermelon boom had taken hold in Faija, bringing with it capital for farmers, and challenges for resource management as commercial farming of water-intensive crops transformed the still largely traditionally and sustainably cultivated oases (Chelleri, et al., 2014; Bossenbroek et al., 2023).

Drought, extreme heat, and intensive agriculture practices have contributed to a dwindling supply of surface water in the region, making groundwater the primary supply for drinking water for Zagora city and its surrounding communes and the main source for irrigation in the Faija. Access to and use of groundwater are controlled by the three tribes that inhabit the Faija Plain, namely the Aït Isfoul, Ouled Aissa, and Mssoufa (Silva-Novoa Sánchez et al., 2024,p.88). Customary and statutory rules of these tribal institutions also govern the collective lands and the collective grazing that takes place on them (Ibid). In 2021, customary rules initiated by the Mssoufa tribe, and later replicated by the Ouled-Aissa, limited irrigated areas for watermelon cultivation to a two-hectare limit per year (Silva-Novoa Sánchez, 2024, p.68). In October 2022, the severe drought conditions affecting the province, prompted the governor of Zagora to further limit the area of melon cultivation to a maximum of one hectare, and prohibited the cultivation in areas designated for drinking water supply (Silva-Novoa, 2024; Royaume du Maroc, 2022).

Fig. 4) Structures typical of nomadic living that belong to Idir’s Bedouin neighbours, Badi and Barca. The couple once lived as nomads and Badi continues to herd goats in the area surrounding Idir’s farm. From left to right top row: Rear exterior of structure used for sleeping; interior of the structure lined with matts and heavy wool blankets. Bottom left: rear exterior of another structure for sleeping. Idir refers to these architectures as “le chambre de nomad.” Bottom right: A separate, smaller structure of dried palm leaves serves as a kitchen. Photos by the author, 2024.

Idir Yachou: A Brief Biography

As a member of the Mssoufa tribe, Idir was granted a ten hectare plot in 2000, through a tribal land endowment program. According to customary rules, only members of the tribe can claim use-right over collective land and must start farming to receive a signed land-use certificate from the tribe and the Caïd (Silva-Novoa Sánchez, 2024).[4] The protocol provides logistical challenges as in order to cultivate, water is necessary and wells are expensive to dig, especially when the land is not legally in the hands of the farmer. To lay claim to his plot, whose location on the official tribal land-use certificate is listed as “Tagourt,” Idir planted two olive trees, a species known for its drought tolerance. They are the same two olive trees that now greet one at the entrance to the small flat-topped house, which was constructed not long after. The well would come nearly twenty years later, in 2019.

At the time Idir was granted the plot, he began working with a local tourism company as a desert guide and cook. In 2007, he bought four dromedaries and started his own guiding agency offering multi-day and multi-week desert treks. To this day, Idir continues to work as a guide, although less frequently, bringing tourists into the Sahara. Guiding comes as a natural vocation for him having lived a nomadic life up until adolescence, however, the fulsomely developed regional tourist industry backed by foreign investors makes for fierce competition for independent local agencies. Idir said that it was during his early years of guide work that the dream of the farm began to coalesce. Serving as a means of income, the farm also provides an approximation of nomadic life, which he prefers over urban living, even if by modern standards, Zagora is a small city with a population of 42,294 (Haut Commissariat au Plan, Royaume du Maroc, 2024).

Born in 1980, in a rural area approximately 70km west of Zagora, Idir is the eldest of five sons. He and his brothers Mustapha and Salah were born in a tent on the plains and were three of eight children who survived. His mother Adjou, now 65, lost five newborns in remote medically unassisted childbirth; she gave birth to her two youngest sons, Hamid and Aziz, in a clinic in Zagora, both of whom, incidentally, are elite long-distance runners who are frequently top ranked at the infamously gruelling Marathon des sables that takes place annually in the Sahara.

At age 12, Idir and his family moved to Zagora following the decision of his father who felt the children would have more opportunity in the city. At this age, Idir was considered too old to enter school, having missed out on foundational learning, however his father was able to convince a teacher to accept him into his class. Idir completed two years of school before his father died, so that at age 14, he assumed the role of provider for the family, taking on landscaping and masonry jobs. Idir continues to live with his family, including Barca, his wife, his children, mother, four brothers and their respective wives and children in a large-two storey home located in a historical neighbourhood near the city’s edge. Despite being in the city, this sector feels like a village with its narrow sandy streets, alleyways draped by towering palms, and connected earthen houses that cast a warm, rose-coloured hue. Cats casually linger at the threshold of open doors ambivalent to the children who run in and out of them, while neighbours offer salutations, which in Morocco is done with the right hand placed on the chest over the heart.

Idir’s Well

In 2017, after a decade of guide work, Idir had raised the necessary funds to dig a well. He  enlisted a local diviner, who, with his forked stick, signalled a prospective source of water. The boring, however, was not productive. Two years would pass before another diviner could be engaged. This time, the boring discovered a layer of hard rock at a depth of 150m, which Idir said produced a surge of hopeful expectation as water was known to often exist under such a stratum at this depth. Finally, at a depth of approximately 200m, the water table was found (Fig.5). The cost of drilling a well at that time was 350 MAD/ meter, putting the total of the project, including the services of the diviner to over 70,000MAD (approx. $7,000 US), a significant investment based on the region’s low wage average and high rate of unemployment. To purchase a pump, Idir sold one of his dromedaries he used for guided treks. In 2019, the well was established and then COVID arrived, which had devastating effects across the region. The complete interruption of tourism forced Idir to sell his dromedaries, while the pandemic’s timing caused him to miss out on a subsidy for a drip irrigation system through the Green Morocco Plan launched by the Ministry of Agriculture (2008–2020), whose mandate was to promote agriculture as part of their strategy for rural development. Despite, or perhaps, because of these intentions, the program in itself has somewhat contributed to the groundwater depletion by encouraging farming, with larger scale operations seeing more benefit as drip-irrigation outfitters found doing business with smaller farms less profitable. Certain nomads have expressed criticism of the project believing that it has distributed too much power to the rich to develop farms and wells, compromising traditional sources of water and use of land.

Now in 2025, Morocco has been in an official state of drought for seven consecutive years. With the country’s power grid increasingly strained due to the frequency of heatwaves, 14% of national households suffer energy poverty, with large families in rural regions with high unemployment rates most acutely affected (Kettani and Sanin, 2024). Global climate modelling predicts an increase in aridity, making the region further vulnerable to droughts. In 2024, Morocco experienced record-breaking heat according to the country’s meteorological agency, reflecting a global trend of increased surface-level temperatures, while also evidencing the observation by climate experts that North Africa is the subregion of the continent experiencing the fastest rate of warming (World Meteorological Organization, 2025). Morocco’s meteorological agency’s annual report recorded an average temperature anomaly of +1.49 degrees Celsius last year, in comparison to the 1991-2020 period (Arab News, 2025). With the country already vulnerable to climate change from a geographic perspective, the Middle Drâa Valley is at an even higher risk due to its topographic exposure, low incomes, and greater reliance on climate-dependent sectors such as agriculture ( Karmaoui, 2014).[5] Adding to this  this already challenging spectrum of factors is Morocco’s current status as Africa’s leading data centre hub, hosting 23 of these facilities, while the country’s data centre market is projected to reach $474 million by 2030 (Tachfine, 2025; Belbagi, 2025). Portrayed by local media as almost uniquely positive, there is scant critical attention paid to the devastating environmental toll of data centres, which are notoriously water and energy gluttonous and polluting. [6]

Considering these statistics and the devastating years of the pandemic, the farm with its olive trees, buildings, solar panels, and crops, all stand as a testament to Idir’s perseverance. I am given a walking tour of the land, where equally marvelous details reveal themselves at a distance and up close. Mountains that run along the northern and eastern aspects provide visual boundaries and a sense of protection, interrupting the unnerving notion of the sublime cultivated by artists of the Romantic period via seemingly infinite vistas. Certain nineteenth-century European painters such as Gustave Guillaumet and Augustus Lamplough, made their way to Morocco, rendering the desert with atmospheric effects used as a veil to hide their lack of practical knowledge of these landscapes. Orientalist artists were instrumental in fomenting the  enduring Western imaginary that envisions deserts as empty wastelands, while in reality plant life is on audacious display as in the solitary Pancratium Sickenbergeri, showcasing its white star-shaped flowers and elegant thin leaves that I was delighted to discover both on Idir’s land and on the sunbaked flats near the Erg Chigaga dunes of the northern Sahara (Fig.6, a). Along with witnessing its hottest year on record, southeastern Morocco received a record torrential rainfall in September of 2024, which caused lakes to form in between dunes in certain parts of the Sahara, so that during my time in the region in December, the desert is in spectacular bloom (Fig.6 b). [7]

Fig.6) Left: The white-flowered Pancratium Sickenbergeri (or Desert Pancratium) here pictured on the flats before Erg Chigaga, one of the largest ergs (dune seas) in the Moroccan Sahara. This flower also grows on the gravelly terrain surrounding Idir’s farm. Right: Rocula (arugula) growing wild in the Sahara near the dunes of Erg Chigaga, visible in the background. The abundance, here pictured in December 2024, was by Idir’s admission the most impressive he could recall. The blooming was as a result of the torrential rainfall the region received in September that same year, which at the time caused flooding in certain parts of the Sahara. All who we met in the desert in December gave thanks for the rain and its reinvigoration of plant life. Photos by the author, 2024.

Walking the periphery of Idir’s land, we encounter wild cumin with bright yellow flowers and a few abandoned watermelons, remnants of the previous harvest (Fig.7). Their shells are broken open and the red meat of the interior spills out onto the spiraled vines that seeming refuse to let go. Ants and flies busy themselves in this tiny, sweet universe. We arrive at a plot of tilled soil on top of which rubber tubes with holes poked in the top side run the length of garden rows sprouting the tips of alfalfa (Fig.8). This is an example of the rudimentary drip-irrigation system, dependent on well and pump, which is a typical staple for agriculturists across Morocco. Above this garden section, is the area dedicated to olive trees and date palms, where Idir has chosen to plant mainly high-quality Medjoul variety and another called Fagouse (Fig. 9). Date palms perform a vital role in a stratified system of agriculture by creating a micro-climate of shade and humidity that allows other vegetation to grow  beneath them, with fruit trees at mid-level and annual/pluriannual crops at low-level (Karmaoui et al., 2014). Around certain of his palms, Idir has planted Faba beans, which he says give nutrients to the tree. There are also henna shrubs and fruit trees: pomegranate, mandarin orange, olive, fig, and almond, most of which are in fledging state. Nearer the house, Idir has planted a Moringa tree, valuable for its medicinal properties beneficial for the treatment of, for example, high blood pressure, heart ailment, and diabetes. Pleased with the growth of this tree, he plans to plant more as Moringa is in high demand in Western markets and few farmers are yet to cultivate it in the area. Next, we pass the earthen-walled corral, which was one of the early structures that Idir built, to house his dromedaries. Nearer the well, Idir has planted more alfalfa, while rocula (arugula) grows wild, both serving as forage for passing sheep, goats, and dromedaries. Explaining that rocula can supply both animals and humans with sufficient hydration to sustain them in drought, he squeezes a fistful of the peppery plant out of which fall large drops of water. Known in Tamazight as Tazakht, this plant is a traditional staple of Imazighen cuisine, eaten by nomads in soups or as a warm salad, and valued for its medicinal properties.

Fig. 7 a,b) Left: Idir holds a stem of cumin, which grows naturally on the Faija Plain and elsewhere in the Middle Valley Drâa. He explains that it is different than the cumin used as a cooking spice, and that nomads brew the plant to make tea or use it medicinally to relieve digestive issues. Right: A broken watermelon attracts ants that have nearly cleaned the flesh from the rind in one half. Photos by the author, 2024.

Fig. 9) Left: Idir crouches next to a young Medjoul date palm, under which he has planted Faba beans.  The beans will nourish the palm tree, which in return provides shade for the plants. Right: A young date palm of the “Fagouse” variety on Idir’s farm. The black tubing is part of the drip irrigation system, while the white marks on the edge of the banked earth surrounding the tree evidence water salination. Photos by the author, 2024.

As early afternoon approaches, Idir excuses himself to the kitchen in the hut to prepare lunch for me, his brother, and the three men who have been hired to work on the chateau, a modest domestic structure that Idir hopes will be used to host visitors on agricultural tours. The kitchen consists of a two-burner gas camping stove, a basin, and a minimally basic ensemble of kitchenware (Fig. 10). He sits on a low bench and sets to work, emerging a short time after with seasoned chicken brochettes and a bright salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and olives. We eat with the workers, who politely refuse extra servings when offered. Dessert is a large platter of fruit, including pomegranates, apples and oranges. Idir’s brother takes a pomegranate between his hands and presses his fingers downward to split open the shell to reveal the translucent red-pink seeds inside and places it, splayed open, atop the arrangement for the partaking by others (Fig.11). I take many photos of this scene—the gorgeous fruit and the large, calloused hands of the men, so that in the extended duration of  its capturing, the composition’s features imprint in my mind to become the representative image of this time and place.

References

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Acknowledgements

I wish to extend enormous gratitude to my collaborator Idir Yachou, whose respect for and knowledge of the Middle Drâa Valley was enduringly evident throughout the project. I thank him for his patience and perseverance in seeing the project through. I am most thankful for the time spent with him and his family, on the farm and in the Yachou home in Zagora, where I was hospitably welcomed, served delicious meals and sweet mint tea, and had fascinating stories bestowed upon me. Thanks also to the fine people at the Landscape Research Group, notably Charlotte Mitchell and Merham Mohamed Hosny Anwar Keleg, who have been ever patient and helpful over the course of the project. Finally, thank you to LRG for making the project possible by granting me the Landscape Research Fund (2024).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This project was supported by the Landscape Research Fund.

BIO

Tracy Valcourt teaches in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. In 2024-2025, she held the position of Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at the School of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane Morocco. Recent publications include “Rethinking Aerial Orientalism: Picturing Deserts from Above” in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and “By the Machine for the Machine: Virilio’s Logistics of Perception in the Age of Generative AI Machine” in Heliotrope. In 2018, sheco-authored with Dr. Sebastien Caquard (Concordia), “From Earthrise to Google Earth: The Vanishing of the Vanishing  Point” in Artistic Approaches to Cultural Mapping: Activating Imaginaries and Means of Knowing (Routledge). In addition to scholarly publications, Dr. Valcourt has written on art, architecture, and technology for magazines such as Border Crossings, Esse, and Real Life. Email: tracy.valcourt@concordia.ca

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[1] Despite my efforts, I was unable to find the statistics on nomad populations in the 2024 census report.

[2] Faija is alternatively spelled “Feija” in some literature.

[3] The six oases making up the MDV are Mezguita, Tinzouline, Ternata, Fezouata, Ktaoua and M’hamid.

[4] The Caïdat (or Kaïdat) is a decentralised territorial administration unit to which one or more Communes

are attached. The head of the Caïdat is the Caïd, who depends on the Ministry of Interior. (Silva-Novoa Sánchez, 2024, 67)

[5] In 2024, Morocco lost 108,00 rural jobs in agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector shed, which economist, Youssef Kriaoui Filali, head of the Moroccan Center for Governance and Management says underscores “the direct link between job creation and Morocco’s fragile agricultural conditions”(El Maisiti, 2025).

[6]Large data centres require approximately 500,000 gallons of water a day for cooling, while future data centres needed to train even more powerful AI models will require millions of gallons, putting further pressure on electricity grids and aquifers (Tan, 2025).

[7] Torrential rain over two days in early September 2024 caused flooding in several regions of Morroco, leading to an estimated 18 fatalities. 200 mm fell in two days in the Zagora region. Five people were killed in the  Drâa-Tafilalet region, while three others died in the more arid Tiznit region (Aublanc, 2024).