Date palm tissue culture and the green Morocco plan

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a socio-economically, ecologically and agronomically important fruit tree in the Middle East and North Africa. In Morocco, millions of date palm trees have been destroyed over a century by bayoud, a severe wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. albedinis. The development of the date industry in Morocco cannot be done without increasing the number of palm trees dramatically and expanding the cultivation of this crop to new zones where the right soil, conditions and water resources are available. The entire sector needed also to be organized in order to increase the productivity, yield and quality of the dates upstream and the commercialization of the product downstream of the production chain. The Green Morocco Plan strategy is addressing these issues. The only way to offer large numbers of certified and top-quality date palm plants to fulfil the goals of this national program is by providing tissue culture plants. This communication shows the great impact that tissue culture technology holds on the development of the date palm sector in Morocco. Furthermore, it explains how the Green Morocco Plan is transforming Morocco from one of the biggest importers of dates to an exporting country.