Badaoui Farm is a semi-arid lowland field in Morocco's Doukkala plains, inland from the Atlantic — degraded land being explored for transformation into a multi-species dryland agroforest, held by Abdelhamid Badaoui and a forming stewardship group. After a wet winter, the water reservoirs are full. The reading of the land begins now.
The site holds existing pomegranate trees planted by the state around 2015, now about eleven years old. They have not been producing well — not because pomegranates cannot grow here, but because they were planted into depleted soil without water-retention infrastructure, without succession design, and without ongoing stewardship. The state planted and left.
What the site also holds: full water reservoirs following a wet winter. Sheep, goats, and beehives already integrated into the land — with honey among the farm's real products. A forming stewardship group with parcels ranging in scale. A working relationship with Planetary Guardians since 2021. Spring bloom across the fields — a signal that the biological potential is there.
The trees are not the problem. They are the first incomplete chapter of a food forest that was never given its next layer.
— PG-RAPID Protocol, Badaoui Food Forest Initiative
Badaoui Farm carries a specific combination: degraded enough to be credible as a dryland restoration site, and rich enough in existing assets — trees, full water, livestock, bees, a steward and a group — to be achievable. It can demonstrate something the current policy paradigm does not: that reduced water consumption and increased productivity are not contradictory — they are the same goal, reached through succession design, soil cover and water retention.
At a larger scale: there are many state-planted tree schemes across Morocco's dryland regions that are not producing well. The Badaoui field explores whether governance, succession design and steward support can help make such stranded plantings productive and regenerative. If it works here, and if it is documented honestly, it can become a reference for other sites — without being over-claimed before the first small cycle has told the truth.
After a wet winter, the reservoirs are full. This is a favourable starting condition, not a guarantee. The first work is to read how water moves across the lowland plain, where it settles, where it runs off, and where shallow water-harvesting can support soil cover without over-designing the land from a distance.
The central metric is not only yield. It is whether water use can fall over time while soil cover, biomass, biodiversity and steward viability rise.
The realistic backbone here is olive-based silvopastoral agroforestry suited to a low-rainfall plain: hardy, drought-adapted trees — olive, carob, fig, almond, and the existing pomegranate — with fodder shrubs, nitrogen-fixing legumes, cereals and aromatic herbs beneath, and sheep and goats integrated on rotation.
Argan is a choice here, not a given. It is not native this far north; its home is Morocco's southwest. It can be introduced as a deliberate, documented, long-horizon trial in the most protected microclimates — national programmes are testing exactly this — but only as an honest introduction, never as a “return to argan forest.” Whether argan enters the design is Abdelhamid's decision.
| Track | Direction | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Soil and water | Broad, shallow water-harvesting suited to flat terrain: shallow swales and spreader banks on barely-perceptible contours, sized by walking the land. Native fodder and pioneer species in thinned zones. Mulching from regular chop-and-drop cycles. Monthly observation of soil cover, water infiltration, and soil-biology signals. | Primary |
| Dryland agroforest | Syntropic multi-layer design building around the existing pomegranate structure: carob and olive as anchor layer; almond, fig and pomegranate as fruit layer; fodder and nitrogen-fixing species such as saltbush, tree lucerne and prickly pear; and a ground layer of alfalfa, barley, artichoke, aloe and aromatic herbs. Argan seedlings only in protected microclimates, if chosen, on a 10–15 year horizon. | Preparing |
| Guest and learning space | Simple guest accommodation in local materials, farm-sourced meals, and workshop space for visiting farmers, researchers and practitioners — a possible local income stream that could later help finance agroforest expansion. A later phase, not a first priority. | Later |
Sheep, goats and beehives are not separate from the agroforest — they are part of it. Fodder shrubs such as saltbush and prickly pear form a drought-proof forage bank; nitrogen-fixing legumes feed both soil and animals; managed rotational grazing cycles nutrients and controls competition; and the bees pollinate the system while producing honey as a real farm product. The design integrates the animals on timing and rotation rather than fencing them out entirely.
Indicative only. Nothing is committed; each phase depends on what the previous one honestly shows, and on funding that does not yet exist.
| Phase | Focus |
|---|---|
| Pre-pilot now | Read the land: walk micro-topography and water, confirm the first small area around ½ ha, understand fencing, labour, water rules and Abdelhamid's own direction. No funding committed. |
| First cycle | A small bounded pilot around ½ ha: first shallow water-harvesting, soil cover and biomass species, first trees around the existing structure, establishment irrigation from the full reservoirs, monthly ledger. |
| Growth | Careful expansion only from evidence; group partner parcels integrated as readiness allows. |
| Maturity | A layered, biodiverse dryland agroforest; honey, herbs, fruit and fodder yields; honest documentation; a reference others can learn from. |
From the first cycle, the PG Ledger documents eight categories monthly at this site:
preparing · pre-pilot · ½ hectare first · read from the ground · dryland agroforest · water-led succession · stewardship group forming · reviewed before expansion · argan only as an honest introduction
Doukkala / Badaoui is part of the Morocco bioregional cluster alongside Had Soualem (2 ha, Assyl Elazzaoui) and Casablanca (coordination, Ingrid Pullar). Different scales. Shared protocols. One bioregional learning field.