In the mid-1990s, donors investments pushed the Moroccan government to adopt participatory approaches in rural development projects. However, participatory practices have been often considered an instrumental mean to gain the adherence of the population rather than a modus operandi. Thus, rural development projects have been implemented with little or no meaningful participation by local communities. Consequently, farmers associations have been often under the control of local and customary elites which ‘captured’ the outputs of development projects and governed local natural resources according to their own logic. In 2008, the national agricultural strategy, called the “Green Morocco Plan”, was launched to promote the development of a modern and export-oriented agriculture on the one hand, and on the other hand to assist vulnerable small-holders famers in increasing their incomes. Such a transformation in the agricultural sector and in local natural resource management however does not seem to support subsistence farmers who are often subjected to local power relations and trapped in global value chains which favor a few business intermediaries. At the same time however, the country has been experiencing an ‘associative wave’ which has favored both the proliferation of village associations and the emergence of a new generation of educated young leaders. These new elements have been gradually challenging the customary power structures and to some extent and in certain contexts gained the capacity to negotiate and influence the outputs of local development. This paper is based on four months of qualitative fieldwork and examines how local forms of collective action can reverse local power relations and change rural politics. Focusing on the case study of Ain Leuh, a rural community of the Middle Atlas, this paper analyzes the local power struggles and competition for leadership which led to the appropriation of a Water User Association by the farmers’ community. ‘Appropriation’ not only relates to changes in water management, but concerns also agricultural development, the establishment of new rules and practices, collective learning and local governance. Institutional appropriation in Ain Leuh has been an ‘empowering process’ which allowed local farmers to gain voice and decision making power, thus becoming protagonists of local agricultural development. In fact, the institutional appropriation led to new and participatory practices in other local associations which allow farmers to confidently negotiate their positions vis-à-vis with state institutions and other business interlocutors in order to promote local agricultural development and consequently to improve their incomes.