William Daniels / Panos
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“Local communities anywhere can benefit from natural resources they know and master; this is how we eradicate poverty and ensure food security,” says Zoubida Charrouf, a chemistry professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, whose research led to Morocco’s argan oil environment and economic empowerment success story.
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SciDevNet (Cairo, Egypt, May 28, 2014) ― For centuries, the drought-tolerant argan tree, endemic to Morocco, has acted as a ‘green curtain’ against desertification by the encroaching Sahara. Argan oil is the tree’s most valuable product. Known for its light, nutty flavour, the oil is used for salad dressing and cooking, and is also reputed to have medicinal and cosmetic properties. But over the twentieth century Morocco lost around half its argan trees to deforestation, overgrazing and agricultural land clearances. Part of the problem was that the production of argan oil was not providing enough incentive for local people to protect the trees: the extraction process was difficult, time-consuming and required strenuous manual work, and there was little available scientific evidence of the oil’s nutritional value — meaning it did not sell well.
As a result, locals would often clear the trees to make way for more lucrative and less labor-intensive crops, such as oranges, bananas and tomatoes. But Zoubida Charrouf, a chemistry professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, saw strong economic and ecological potential in the tree, by partly mechanizing traditional oil production processes and involving local communities. “The idea was to transform the environmental problem into an economic opportunity, and invest in nature,” Charrouf says.
Science to the rescue
In 1986, Charrouf began researching argan oil production processes and traditional techniques. Using new technology developed in her Rabat laboratory, Charrouf mechanized part of the production process: she found that automating the pressing of the oil helped speed up operations, improve oil quality, reduce waste and prolong the oil’s shelf life, hence reducing production costs and improving income from oil sales. She also discovered molecular substances unique to the argan oil — including antioxidants and antimicrobial agents — and undertook field work, during which she consulted local oil producers to help devise an innovative plan to improve the entire production process and make it more sustainable and lucrative.
“Women in the cooperative not only learn how to read and write; it’s also a comprehensive capacity-building atmosphere where you continuously learn and practice.”
Amina Ben Taleb, Taitmatine
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