 Towards
food self-sufficiency |
Agriculture, one of the main sectors of the
Algerian economy, contributes to nearly 12% of GDP
and employs some 1.500.000 people, that is roughly
25% of the labour force. The growth rate is about
19%. However, despite significant resources and
very fertile grounds, Algeria cannot ensure its
food safety. The agricultural production is insufficient
to meet the food needs for the country. Thus Algeria
has to import about 2.5 billion USD per year of
agricultural products (cereals, dairy products,
oil, sugar, coffee...). On the other hand, Algeria
only exports the equivalent of 150 to 200 million
USD in that sector, that is mainly wine and dried
fruits. In fact, the population growth since the
Independence was not followed by a widening of the
useful agricultural surface which currently represents,
according to the official figures, 8,6 million hectares,
that is to say 18,5% of the 47 million cultivable.
Regarding all these elements, the agricultural sector
offers today great investment opportunities as well
as high output prospects. Some companies, in particular
private ones, having invested the crenel, are thus
experiencing dazzling rises. They are often looking
for partners in order to optimize their techniques
of production.
The PNDA, for a sustainable development
Following the failures of the preceding policies,
and in order to solve the problems encountered by
the agricultural sector, the government has set
up a revival program, the National Plan of Agricultural
Development (PNDA). The fundamental role of this
initiative is the development of the agricultural
production, while developing the potentialities
of the country. The main concern consists in reaching
food safety, in other words access to agricultural
products, so much in quality than in quantity for
the population as a whole. In addition, the PNDA
has a double mission: to encourage and support the
farmers. The main operation aims at land exploitation,
by the system of concession of insufficiently exploited
lands. It is thus a reconversion of the lands; the
areas of the south represent within this framework
a significant potential. A second priority relates
to the development of the dies (cereals, milk, potato,
arboriculture, etc), in order to multiply outputs.
Finally, a national program of reafforestation was
also initiated within the PNDA framework for 1,2
million hectares, the aim is to increase the afforestation
rate from 11% to 14%. In the same way, the reafforestation
program is accompanied by an intense activity to
make the residents aware of the positive impacts
of forests. The PNDA is financied by the National
Fund of Regulation and Agricultural Development,
which invested about 40 billion DA in 2001. According
to the Ministry of Agriculture, the first results
are very encouraging. Thus, some 171,000 jobs were
created in the sector in 2001. Otherwise, some promising
figures were registered in terms of increase of
production and output improvement. A renovation
and modernization process of the agricultural infrastructures
was also put into place.
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Developping the
agri-food industry
Despite some good results, some essential problems
remain to be solved, to ensure the future of the
agricultural sector. Thus, 80% of the exploitations
cover less than 10 hectares. This incontestably
raises the question of the diversification of agricultural
activities, but also the problem of the diffusion
of technical progress within small-scale farmings,
in order to increase their productivity. From a
legal point of view, there are still some hesitations
regarding land matters during land acquisition.
It is also advisable to note an insufficiency concerning
financial means allocated to research, for a sustainable
development of agriculture. For exemple, there are
now few techniques intended for the increase of
land productivity, such as fertilizers.Because of
this institutional deficit, the private companies
make sometimes some attempts to invest the sector,
in order to become a fully-committed actor of the
agricultural development. Thus, M. Boudiaf, CEO
of El Bousten Group, a significant tomato canning
facility covering 35% of the Algerian market, explains
: "We have launched a company, AGRITEC, in
partnership with AGIR, an international Canadian
group. This project consists in taking up the agricultural
challenge. We have an analysis laboratory of seed
fertilizers, water and lands (...). We also have
two factories producing liquid and solid fertilizers.
(...) It is our first project of great scale while
waiting to make an engineering on the agricultural
level ; we are trying to give an economic notion
of the product to our farmers." And amongst
other projects, M. Boudiaf also hopes to reinstate
the culture of sunflower. In another register, M.
Hasnaoui, CEO of Hasnaoui Group, notes that "agriculture
will not be able to develop if one does not set
up the necessary agricultural processing industry."
And he adds " it is useless to produce if the
farmer does not find outlets. There are often peaks
of production which get lost because there are no
means of transformation." The agri-food industry
is therefore not developped enough yet. Nevertheless,
some companies of the sector are thriving, such
as Group El Bousten. M. Boudiaf raises however the
problem of exportation. According to him, the State
should care more about it. He explains "The
State should seriously be committed in order to
help those who want to export, for the levelling
of all the companies."
The sinews of war
M.Brahim Hasnaoui highlights a crucial point : "Water
is the genuine barrier to development because it
is a missing resource and very badly managed. For
the agriculture sector to develop, the first step
would be to rationalize the water and, therefore,
to develop an intensive agriculture with a control
of production techniques." The Hydraulics Ministry
has put into place an ambitious policy to update
the hydraulic infrastructures. The Agriculture Ministry
is also encouraging the farmers to adopt irrigation
systems with water-saving devices. In this respect,
the drop by drop system has developped significatively
during the last few years. This system consists
in irrigating sparingly the plantation, and more
particularly palm plantations.
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