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The Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab affirmed, Thursday in Algiers, that his department was working to facilitate and develop agricultural activity in the Great South by intensifying the connection to energy and providing fertilizers.
In his speech delivered during a study day organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, relating to the map of rural potential at the level of the southern wilayas, Mr. Arkab specified that a working framework had been defined to facilitate cooperation between the Energy and Agriculture sectors, allowing the exploitation of hydrocarbons and agricultural land on the same areas, after the establishment of a Joint Technical Commission to facilitate “the cohabitation” between strategic agricultural projects and activities linked to hydrocarbons.
This Commission includes representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Mines, Sonatrach and the National Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbon Resources (ALNAFT), adds the minister.
Arkab explained that the mission of this commission consisted of “the identification and implementation of cooperation solutions to ensure the operation in a harmonious manner”, referring, in this context, to the agricultural center project specializing in sugar beet cultivation in the wilaya of El Menia.
On the other hand, Mr. Arkab affirmed that the necessary resources were provided by the Sonelgaz Group to guarantee the connection of agricultural farms to electricity with the aim of connecting 100,000 farms, where 57,000 farms have been connected up to here.
Another program has been drawn up to connect 10,466 other farms before the end of 2024, according to the minister, thus reaching a connection rate of 70% of the total number of farms concerned in three wilayas in the south of the country, with 3,300 connections in each wilaya, namely Adrar, El Oued and Timimoune.
The sector works to provide the energy to pump groundwater in southern regions, as well as to provide geological data from the results of foraging operations, which uncovered groundwater during oil and gas prospecting campaigns , he added.
Sonatrach has also launched into the production of fertilizers, alone or in partnership, with a production capacity currently reaching 3.76 million tonnes/year of ammonia, and 3.45 million tonnes/year of urea, to which is added a total production capacity reaching 980,000 tonnes of different types of fertilizers, according to the minister.
As a reminder, this meeting, whose work continued behind closed doors after the opening speeches of the ministers, took place under the chairmanship of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development,
Youcef Cherfa, and in the presence of the Minister of Energy and Mines, Mohamed Arkab, the Minister of Finance, Laaziz Faid, the Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Karim Bibi Triki, the Minister of Hydraulics, Taha Derbal and the Minister of the Environment and Renewable Energy, Fazia Dahleb, as well as six (6) walis from the southern wilayas, and representatives of several ministries and CEOs of public companies operating in the Energy and of Agriculture.