20101113
reuters

RABAT (Reuters) - A significant level of rainfall over the main grain growing areas in North Africa has encouraged farmers in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to speed up the sowing season which ends in few weeks, growers said on Friday.

Weather is key for a region where the majority of farmers still rely on rain.

"We have a good start for this season. The weather was nice, with good rain well spread over all regions of Morocco," said Ahmed Ouayach of Morocco's Interprofessional Federation of Cereal Activities, known by its French acronym FIAC.

Morocco has planted 5 million hectares on average each season for the past decade for an annual average crop of 6.5 million tonnes.

"We recorded a surplus in rainfall across Morocco this year: In some areas, the surplus reached 30-40 percent above average precipitations over the previous 30 years," said a senior official from the state-run Moroccan weather service.

North Africa is one of the world's biggest regional importers of wheat, despite efforts by governments to widen irrigated areas to offset the impact of occasional drought and ensure stable grain productions.

Algeria was the world's fifth biggest wheat importer last year while Morocco was tenth. Tunisia, whose population is barely a third that of Algeria's or Morocco's, imports at least 600,000 tonnes of soft wheat even with a bumper harvest.

Libya meanwhile relies almost exclusively on imports due to its mostly barren land.

Asked to give a figure of the land planted in cereals so far, Ouayach of Morocco said: "The situation is changing daily in the fields. The picture will be clear by end-November to early-December."