The experiment on effect of organic amendment and NPK fertilizer of forage yield of cereals using saline water irrigation (12.4 dS/m) was conducted in Es-Smara province in the South of Morocco during 2020–2021. We found that organic amendments have a great positive impact on increasing forage yield of selected cereals grown under salinity conditions. Compared to the control, the application of amendments improved dry biomass yield by 55, 101, 126%, through the application of compost, sheep manure, and NPK, respectively. The highest increment in dry matter productivity was through the combined application of organic amendment and NPK fertilization: clearly showed that a judicious combined application could improve forage supply in the salt-affected irrigated drylands.

Soil salinity and drought are the two major challenges agriculture is facing in marginal environments, such as desert areas, which limit the growth and productivity of traditional cultivated crop species. In the Sahara Desert of the southern region of Morocco, livestock is the major agricultural activity, and forage supply is severely affecting livestock production. Blue panicum (Panicum antidotale Retz.) is an alternative salt-tolerant crop recently introduced to Morocco’s Sahara to enhance forage availability for livestock. The aim of this study was to increase the productivity and nutritional quality of blue panicum through the use of integrated agronomic practices, such as planting methods (bed or flat), crop establishment (direct seeding, transplantation, and rhizome propagation), organic and/or mineral amendments, and grass–legumes intercropping. The preliminary results showed that in the highly saline conditions, the combined application of organic amendments, seedling transplanting, and bed planting method gave the highest production (56 t/ha/year) of fresh biomass, which is higher than 50% compared to the control. This study suggests that in the southern region of Morocco and the Sahara Desert, the adoption of the blue panicum with integrated agronomic practices sustains livestock production.

Nowadays, salinization is becoming a serious problem affecting several agricultural areas, especially irrigated ones. A field experiment was conducted in Foum El Oued, south of Morocco, testing quinoa responses to three irrigation-water salinities (4, 12, and 20 dS/m) combined with nine organic amendments. The obtained results indicate that most of the growth and productivity parameters were negatively affected by salinity, while the effect of organic amendment varied from one salinity level to another. Under high salinity, sheep manure, compost, and insects improved quinoa seed yield by 157, 110, and 83%, respectively, compared to the control. The findings of this study recommend that organic amendment could be a judicious practice to improve quinoa yield under saline conditions.

Soil salinity limits forage productivity in ~1125 million ha of particularly arid lands across continents. Grass-legume mixtures are known to enhance soil nutrient cycling and forage productivity in non-saline conditions. We tested if these benefits can be replicated in the saline soils (EC_e > 14) of Laayoune-Morocco during the year 2021, based on a randomized complete block design (RCBD) experiment with 50–50 and 30–70% blue panicum grass (Panicum antidotales Reitz), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) mixtures compared to their monocrops. There was no significant variation (p = 0.36) in forage accumulation across treatment, but the blue panicum grass and alfalfa mixture had slightly greater forage yield compared to each in monocrop (13% and 5% Mg ha⁻¹). Blue panicum grass proportionate dry matter exceeded alfalfa in mixtures (62 and 54%). During establishment, blue panicum grass buffers against effects of high salinity on forage productivity in mixtures with alfalfa.