As the summer harvest season begins in agriculture-dependent North Africa, severe drought will lead to crop failures that will increase risks of political uncertainty, social unrest and economic instability. Northwest Africa's Maghreb region, which includes Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, is among the most arid in the world. And amid a pre-existing drought, scarce rainfall in 2023 is exacerbating conditions like drained groundwater, lower water tables at regional dams, and an over-use of the scant available water resources. With summer harvests of cereal grain crops just beginning, this dry environment has led regional farmers and U.N. observers to forecast that crop yields will be poorer than expected. And since Maghreb is heavily dependent on agriculture, which accounts for roughly 12-13% of its countries' GDP, the impact of these poor harvests will be manifold....
