Résumé
At the global scale, due to the rapid development of wells and drilling a third of farming's irrigated surfaces rely upon groundwater resources. By securing access to irrigation, groundwater enables an increase in yields and production volumes. It also leads to a change in crop rotation systems with the introduction of high added value crops. These changes have consequences on downstream operators, who must be organized and coordinated to market the products. In Morocco, as in many developing countries, these fast changes are made in a context of strong informality. Such is the case of the onion subsector in the region of Sais. Production has strongly increased in recent years, due to private irrigation. Around this agricultural production, numerous informal activities have been developed to market the product. This article aims to show i) how the subsector has been organized in response to the rapid development of private irrigation and crop production, ii) who the stakeholders are, their roles and their relations, while iii) assessing the impacts of this irrigated subsector in terms of employment, added value and distribution. Many investors are still attracted by this booming sector although many of them risk being rapidly excluded. Farmers and wholesalers are more threatened by price decreases than by water resource depletion.