International Argan Day, celebrated on May 10, will be celebrated with great fanfare this year in Taghazout Bay. On the sidelines of the Art’gan Days, the seaside resort nestled north of Agadir is inaugurating the Targant Center, which provides for a production center and an Argan tree museum.
On the occasion of the international day of the argan tree, celebrated on May 10, the Taghazout Bay seaside resort presented, this Friday, its Targant center, which includes a production workshop for cooperatives in the region as well as a museum. of the Argan tree.
“The Targant Center is one of the essential animation components of the Taghazout Bay resort. It is a center that has been designed and developed as part of a partnership and consultation process with all the stakeholders”, declared for the occasion Housna Medaghri Alaoui, director of organization and support at the Société d development and promotion of the Taghazout station (SAPST). The inauguration of the center will thus mark the Art’gan Days, celebrated in the resort until May 10.
The manager recalled that the main objective of this center is to “promote the natural and cultural heritage linked to the argan tree, enhance the production process of argan oil and improve the living conditions of women in the region and local cooperatives. “The center also reinforces the position of the station in terms of sustainable development, anchored in the DNA of the station,” she added.
Valuing the artisanal process
Built on 1,000 square meters for an overall investment of 30 million dirhams, the center is “entirely designed, developed, fitted out and equipped” by SAPST and made available to the Fondation du Sud, responsible for finding partners for the management of the Center. “All the income from the center will be redeployed within the framework of local projects designed in collaboration with the Fondation du Sud”, specifies Housna Medaghri Alaoui.
“The Art’gan Days are one of the ways to promote the centre. The event will be annual on the sidelines of the international day of the argan tree celebrated on May 10. The promotion will also be done with tour operators and all the hotel establishments of the resort.
Housna Medaghri Alaoui
The official also announces that an agreement will be signed with the Rural Tourism Development Network (RDTR) to further promote this center and organize circuits in the hinterland. “We are also going to organize professional educ-tours and plan agreements with schools to bring children back, raise awareness and visit the museum,” she says.
Through the center, the SAPST contributes to the “valorization of the artisanal process and to perpetuate it more”. “For the crushing part, for example, we wanted it to remain manual to try to transfer this ancestral know-how”, we specify.
© Provided by Yabiladi
A center designed in consultation with women and a museum to tell the story of the argan tree
Speaking at the press conference for the presentation of the center, Professor Lahcen Kenny, teacher-researcher at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute in Agadir, indicated that the argan tree constitutes a “unique and symbolic millennial intangible national heritage which deserves to be promoted and protected”, calling for “enhancement without harming capital” and expressing the wish to “continue supporting the argan tree”.
The expert recalled that one hectare of argan trees can only produce 3 liters of oil, pleading for modern agriculture in order to increase production. “We can never say enough regarding what women have done for the argan tree. The woman must be at the center of attention and be the spokesperson”, he further pleaded.
Moreover, Housna Medaghri Alaoui assured that “the woman remains the central element of this center”. “The latter was set up as part of a participatory approach. The very design of the production workshops was thought out in collaboration with these women. Every little detail, every piece of equipment, every material purchased was done in consultation with the women who operate the local cooperatives.
In addition to the production workshop, the center also includes an Argan Museum, designed by the Moroccan museologist, Ahmed Ghazali. The idea is to “propose an interactive, didactic and technological scenography” of this ancestral know-how around the endemic tree of the kingdom, its natural specificities and the different social and cultural links it creates, according to the organizers.
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Professor Lahcen Kenny, teacher-researcher at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute in Agadir, presenting the argan tree museum. /DR
On May 10, SAPST also plans to plant nearly 800 argan trees in collaboration with schoolchildren and children from hotel kids’ clubs. “Today, the resort has a nature reserve of 100 hectares of argan trees that we want to preserve. Inevitably, with the construction, we are obliged to clear some argan trees but we are committed to replanting at least the equivalent”, concludes Housna Medaghri Alaoui.
