干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Argan tree is a multipurpose arborescent species of great socio-economical interest for south-west Morocco. It is utilized for nutrition of people and livestock, as well as in medicine and in cosmetics. It protects against desertification and erosion while producing wood for various end-uses. The natural stands, in constant reduction since the 19th century, are more and more threatened by anthropomorphic pressures, hampering the natural regeneration of the species. Given this situation, Cirad was asked in 2006 to take part in a practical project, that was to be financially supported for 3 years, with a view to restoring argan tree natural stands. The goal of this project is to improve, through applied research approaches, the quality of the current argan tree stands. Taking advantage of the variation within the species, superior mother trees (plus trees) will be selected. These latter will be mass propagated using the most suitable cloning techniques to produce ultimately better adapted and more homogeneous clonal populations. After 2 years of close collaboration with the Centre Regional de Recherches Forestieres de Marrakech and the Universite de Marrakech, on testing different rooting conditions, one thousand rooted cuttings have been produced from juvenile argan tree seedlings. This material will be used as experimental stock plants and for field tests, in comparison with traditional seedlings. In addition, out of the 14 plus trees selected by the local people to be mass clonally produced, 8 have already been successfully mobilized in an ex situ clone bank for initiating their mass clonal propagation by rooted cuttings, prior to field testing and identification of superior clones for plantation establishment. The vegetative propagation techniques developed can also be used for large scale production of rooted cuttings from the seedlings derived from the fruits collected from the plus-trees, presumably of superior quality.