Case Study: Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests achieves rapid drought relief for farmers with Microsoft Corporation SharePoint

Turning a potential crisis into success: Morocco’s farmers aided by ‘SARA’

The Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests faced a national emergency in 2016 when severe drought cut grain production by 70% and threatened millions of rural livelihoods. Working with Microsoft Corporation and using SharePoint, SQL Server, and Datazen, the ministry needed a fast, scalable way to deliver subsidies across all 12 regions despite limited IT infrastructure.

Microsoft Corporation helped enable the rapid build of SARA, a national platform for collecting field data, managing subsidy distribution, and monitoring collection points in real time. Delivered in under three months, the system supported 850,000 metric tons of barley for 750,000 farmers over eight months, improved transparency and operational efficiency, and gave the ministry a lasting foundation for future e-government and data projects.

Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests

Majid Lahlou

CIO