Ever wonder what a day on the Farm in Morocco could be like? Ryan, who recently joined us had a chance to experience this on a recent visit to Morocco and is able to share his experience:
Morocco, or Marrakech at least, seemingly relies upon agriculture as one of its main contributors to its economy. Throughout my trip I had to make a number of visits to my father’s farm and on these visits I learned how their agricultural practices are twenty or even thirty years behind ours. Deep irrigation wells provide the water for the crops. A brief, carefully measured lean over the hole reveals a frighteningly vast drop to the bottom where the water lies. The machinery used to extract the water would probably not look out of place in the 50s or 60s. Nonetheless, the farms continue to deliver quality produce (the fruit is amongst the sweetest, juiciest you might ever taste) and the vegetables are always of the finest class.
The work that goes into the farming is quite remarkable. The farmhands work from morning until late in the evening, seemingly from enjoyment – perhaps passion – as opposed to simple necessity. At times however, some of the work is noticeably dangerous and yet the farmhands carry on as though it were picking apples from a tree. On one particular occasion, the irrigation machinery – the hub of the farm – broke down. The repair men who came to sort the machine risked their lives to fix it (literally). Standing on a metal girder which ran across the gap, the men twisted, turned, oiled and screwed the machine for hours. Holding onto nothing but the machine itself, with oily hands I must point out, the men spent hours trying to fix this antiquated piece of farming equipment that virtually anywhere else would have been used when TVs were black and white. Looking back, its rather mad how a visit to my father’s farm turned into a nail-biting experience.
On reflection, and with grown-back nails, the day on the farm was a thoroughly interesting experience. Normally a travel experience lets you soak up particular elements of a country’s culture, i.e. the food, weather, music and so on. The farm visit was an entirely different experience – one in all honesty I hadn’t expected – that added a totally different dimension to my Marrakech travels.
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