The Drought Resilience of Vast Livestock Reared in Agropastoral Versus Sylvo-Agro-Pastoral Systems in Morocco

The present sudy discusses the main climate impactsImpacts on rangelands and forest lands and their consequence on the animal feed in two contratsed areas. More precisely, it aims to investigate to what extent the feeding requirements of animals raised extensively are covered in agro-pastoralAgro-pastoral (Settat region) and sylvo-pastoralSylvo-pastoral systems (Benslimane region)? What are the impactsImpacts on livestock under different raifall situations (normal, wet and dry) and what are the most common drought-coping techniques used by farmers in these two systems?. The data collection and surveys were carried out from March 2020 to December 2021. The results showed that for the agro-pastoralAgro-pastoral system, the forage production was estimated to be 46.8 kg DM, 500 kg DM and 800 kg DM, for wet, normal, and dry years, respectively. In sylvo-pastoralSylvo-pastoral system, the production is higher, ranging between 350 kg DM and 1591 kg DM in both dry and wet years. The field visits showed a decline of rangeland’s biodiversity due to the overgrazing combined with the drought impact. In addition, the areas of rangelands and pastures were getting smaller as a result of increased conversion of these areas into cropland and intensive irrigation systems being put in place. From this study, it is to be highlighted that both range and forest lands can no longer meet the needs of the existing flocks.