60th International Rose Festival in Morocco celebrates Damask rose, lifeblood of a town
Gloved and armed with shears, women weave through thorny brambles, clipping and tossing their harvest into wheelbarrows.
'Thank God for the rain,' said rose picker Fatima El Alami. 'There are roses elsewhere, but there's nowhere like here.'
She is right. Mild temperatures, steady sunlight and low humidity make the fields around Kalaat M'Gouna a perfect cradle for growing its signature flower: the Damask rose.
Abundant precipitation and several desert downpours this year have bestowed Morocco with an exceptional yield of the flower,
used for rosewater and rose oil
Harvested roses before they are boiled to produce rose products in Kalaat M'Gouna, Morocco. Photo: AP
Workers at a women's cooperative that produces rose-based products sort harvested roses. Photo: AP
Pink and pungent, the roses are set to come in at 4,800 tonnes this year, a bloom far beyond the 2020-2023 average, according to the Regional Office for Agricultural Development, in nearby Ouarzazate.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
12 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
India's farming crisis deepens as climate change fuels rise in farmer suicides
On a small farm in India 's Maharashtra state, Mirabai Khindkar said the only thing her land grew was debt, after crops failed in drought and her husband killed himself. Farmer suicides have a long history in India, where many are one crop failure away from disaster, but extreme weather caused by climate change is adding fresh pressure. Dwindling yields due to water shortages, floods, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall, coupled with crippling debt, have taken a heavy toll on a sector that employs 45 per cent of India's 1.4 billion people. Mirabhai's husband Amol was left with debts to loan sharks worth hundreds of times their farm's annual income after the three-acre (one-hectare) soybean, millet and cotton plot withered in the scorching heat. He swallowed poison last year. 'When he was in the hospital, I prayed to all the gods to save him,' Mirabai said, her voice breaking.
South China Morning Post
24-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Monsoon early arrival in India raises hopes for bumper harvests
Monsoon rains hit the coast of India's southernmost state of Kerala on Saturday, eight days earlier than usual, marking the earliest arrival in 16 years and providing the promise of a bumper harvest and relief from a gruelling heatwave. The monsoon, the lifeblood of the country's US$4 trillion economy, delivers nearly 70 per cent of the rain that India needs to water farms and replenish aquifers and reservoirs. Nearly half of India's farmland, without any irrigation cover, depends on the annual June-September rains to grow a number of crops. Summer rains usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugar cane. The onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala on May 24 is its earliest onset since May 23, 2009, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday. The monsoon has covered Kerala and parts of neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as well as parts of the northeastern state of Mizoram, the IMD said. Conditions are favourable for the monsoon's further spread into Goa, parts of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, the northeastern states, West Bengal, and the remaining parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the next 2 to 3 days.
South China Morning Post
20-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
60th International Rose Festival in Morocco celebrates Damask rose, lifeblood of a town
Gloved and armed with shears, women weave through thorny brambles, clipping and tossing their harvest into wheelbarrows. 'Thank God for the rain,' said rose picker Fatima El Alami. 'There are roses elsewhere, but there's nowhere like here.' She is right. Mild temperatures, steady sunlight and low humidity make the fields around Kalaat M'Gouna a perfect cradle for growing its signature flower: the Damask rose. Abundant precipitation and several desert downpours this year have bestowed Morocco with an exceptional yield of the flower, used for rosewater and rose oil Harvested roses before they are boiled to produce rose products in Kalaat M'Gouna, Morocco. Photo: AP Workers at a women's cooperative that produces rose-based products sort harvested roses. Photo: AP Pink and pungent, the roses are set to come in at 4,800 tonnes this year, a bloom far beyond the 2020-2023 average, according to the Regional Office for Agricultural Development, in nearby Ouarzazate.
