H’lib Bladi

In Morocco, the dairy sector supports 1.4 million people and generates 49 million days of work per year. Morocco counts 260,000 dairy farmers, 90% of whom have fewer than five cows.

Yet, despite a 99% self-sufficiency rate, Morocco saw milk production drop by 28% between 2019 and 2023 due to drought and inflation, all while imports of powdered milk surged by 250%.

In spite of their central role, dairy smallholders are the most impacted and are faced with a range of intertwined environmental, economic and social challenges.

In 2023, Danone Ecosystem, GIZ and Danone launched the phase 2 of H’Lib Bladi, to promote sustainable milk production among  7 000 smallholder dairy farmers. This second phase followed a successful 3-year pilot phase between 2015-2018, with 1,600 smallholders increasing their milk production, lowering their climate impact, and improving their revenue.

The new phase aims to scale the project impact up and is built upon 3 pillars:

• Social:
  • Upgrading Milk Collection Centers (MCC) by transforming them into dairy hubs for peer-to peer exchange, knowledge sharing and provision of services to farmers.
  • Upskilling farmers and supporting women’s empowerment

• Economic:
  • Introducing an innovative approach through the creation of a community of 1000 farmer ambassadors promoting sustainable dairy models. These farmers, defined as “High Potential Farmers”, will become the future medium scale specialized dairy farmers and be role-models to other farmers in the project.
  • Providing equipment (hygienic milk cans; herd water troughs) to increase productivity and ensure farmers’ income stability.
  • Introducing technologies; herd housing innovations; mechanical milking machines; traceability registers, access to silage machines.

• Environmental:
  • Supporting transition to best practices on herd management; feed reformulation; manure and water management; and piloting innovation in Moroccan dairy land management with agroforestry to increase soil health and water retention; as well as creating additional economic activity for smallholders.
  • Developing Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions baselines and roadmaps with the goal to reduce footprint by 30% by 2030, with focus on methane.

Farmer training is central to the project and covers water management (e.g. forage strategies to reduce irrigation), animal welfare (e.g. shade to reduce heat stress), and soil and crop practices (e.g. crop rotation, erosion control, biodiversity). These efforts aim to strengthen climate resilience, reduce environmental impact, and improve the overall sustainability of the dairy value chain.