Hit by virus and drought, Moroccans tighten belts for Eid

Moroccan farmer Hamid had pinned his hopes on selling his sheep for the Eid al Adha feast, to make up for a year of drought and the economic paralysis linked to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

But snap domestic travel restrictions imposed by the North African country’s authorities on Sunday after a surge in new infections has cast a pall over trade ahead of the festival on Friday. While the Moroccan countryside has seen fewer infections than the kingdom’s cities, it has been hit hard by the economic repercussions of the crisis.

“We lowered our prices in response to weak demand,” Hamid said, a mask slung under his chin. For the 54-year-old farmer, who heads to market every year ahead of Eid to sell his livestock for slaughter, “the most important thing is to earn money after months of hardship when we had zero income.”

According to a study by the High Commission for Planning (HCP), in charge of official statistics, the drop in income has affected 70 per cent of the rural population compared to 59 per cent of urban dwellers, and 77 per cent of farmers have seen their revenues fall in recent months.

This is in part because people from rural areas “who work in the city and transfer a good part of their income to their families have stopped doing so after losing their jobs,” agronomist Larbi Zagdouni said.

The lockdown imposed for around 10 weeks from midmarch compounded problems for farmers already facing a severe drought in a country heavily dependent on agriculture.

In difficult times, many farmers rely on selling their livestock to “reduce losses and pay off debts,” 34-year-old farmer Abdellatif said.

Eid al Adha will still be celebrated this year even though mosques will not hold public prayers and travel restrictions will limit the traditional family gatherings held during the holiday. — AFP

It is the testing time for the entire world due to the current economic and social situation. The Sultanate of Oman cannot remain aloof from its surroundings. What is happening everywhere had implications on development of human resources. The training and skill development programme of all sorts which could help in the employment of the citizens of the country is facing massive challenges. The sustainability of state financing of this crucial programme is now a massive issue. Despite this, it is one of the economic priorities due to its importance to the society. The government has been doing massive service through National Training Fund. Development of human resources and training is not an easy task. It requires proper planning so that the youth of the country are trained and their skills are developed so that they can become assets for the country which is most important. This training fund helps in this regard. This results in largescale employment of the youth. Any suspension of such service would have adverse implications. We expect that this will be avoided.

The country has been running this skill development programme since many years. It has helped in development of most precious wealth in the country in the form of skills. But it is natural that such programme could face financial obstacles at certain point of time. The drop in oil prices and the corona pandemic has paralysed many economic sectors. Therefore, obstruction in the way of the training programme cannot be ruled out. This programme has supported job-oriented training of the youth of the country. Therefore, it is important. We need to come up with certain ideas to come out of this crisis. Perhaps setting up of a ‘Waqf’ or endowment fund under any name can be important for future. We must think about having sources of sustainable financing of this programme so that the plans and objectives which we aspired for are achieved and we see citizens of the country at all levels of jobs and employment.

The endowment or ‘Waqf’ is part of Islamic jurisprudence and has a historical legacy in Oman. This can be used for the skill development of the citizens of the country and empower them to be employed.

There are many welfare and financial means which are used for building mosques in the country. The number of mosques and grand mosques in the country has reached 16,000. Some of these means could also be used for social upliftment, social security and skill development of people. All these services have rewards from Almighty Allah. It is commonly said that a piece of bread in the mouth of a hungry is better than building thousand grand mosques.