Presentation short abstract

Water-driven South–South farmer mobilities are pushing new irrigated frontiers across the Sahel–Maghreb. Drawing on cases from Morocco, Mali, and Mauritania, this paper explores how these movements reconfigure land and water access, labor dynamics, and local socio-ecologies.

Presentation long abstract

Across the Sahel–Maghreb region, (ground)water has become a central driver of agricultural expansion, reshaping land uses, labor dynamics, and mobility patterns. Since the 1980s, technological innovations, climate variability, and market incentives have facilitated a shift from surface-water irrigation to intensive groundwater extraction, contributing to the emergence of new agricultural frontiers in arid and semi-arid environments. This contribution examines these transformations through a multi-sited study conducted in Morocco, Mali, and Mauritania. Building on itinerant fieldwork combining interviews and observations, the study analyzes how farmers move in search of water, fertile soils, and labor, and how these movements reconfigure existing agrarian systems and livelihoods. Findings show that mobile farmers cultivate high-value crops such as watermelons, and vegetables using drip irrigation, imported technologies, and flexible labor arrangements. Their presence generates new flows of knowledge, capital, and labor, contributing to the formation of transnational agrarian networks linking Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and global markets. These mobilities are adaptive, non-permanent, and closely tied to fluctuating water availability and market conditions. However, these dynamics also produce significant socio-ecological tensions, including increased pressure on water resources, competition over land, restructuring of pastoral spaces, and rising land values.