In the Haouz Plain, just outside of the city of Marrkaech, it is time for tea for these farm workers in the olive grove. Mediterranean climate is characterized by the presence of a long period of hot, dry weather. In the Haouz, there is generally no rain from April until the end of October.
Irrigation becomes necessary.
Farmers carefully work up the soil around their tree crops to capture the winter rains and allow rainwater to penetrate the ground fully. These men have spent several hours cultivating the ground in and around olive trees. The ground they have worked up yielded a crop of barley or wheat in the early summer. Now, in September, they are working the ground again, readying it for a new crop of grain to be planted just before the winter rains arrive in October. This is called double-cropping.