Cap sur l’agriculture saharienne – Le Jeune Indépendant

Agriculture in the South is a strategic alternative to ensure the country’s food security. This agricultural development aims to strengthen the country’s food security by covering a significant part of the national needs for agricultural products. This was indicated on Wednesday by Professor Brahim Mouhouche, emphasizing that the integration of new technologies is essential to this agriculture, which remains a major challenge.

“The agricultural sector consumes immense quantities of water, hence the need to turn towards the South, particularly the southwest and center of the country. These regions in which the water is not deep, warm or salty, which will promote agricultural production,” he explained during his speech on national radio. He added that this strategy will help increase imports, making it possible to achieve an 11% increase in wheat production, as shown in the latest report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a recent report published on May 10.

Professor Mouhouche also highlighted the importance of the subsidy and encouragement provided by the authorities to encourage farmers to produce more and import less. He stressed that Algeria currently imports certain agricultural products whose import rate must be reduced, knowing that support for the agricultural sector is estimated at around 130 billion dinars.

Along the same lines, Professor Mouhouche stressed that the integration of new technologies in the agricultural sector will make it possible to further boost agricultural yields. “Currently everything is becoming intelligent, and agriculture is not outside of this system. It is therefore essential to intelligently manage agriculture, irrigation, storage and transport. This means that we must produce economically,” he affirmed, while insisting on the role of research in this sense, in particular to find other varieties of cereals which adapt to the climate of Algeria. , as another solution to improve performance.

Regarding food security, the expert affirmed that Algeria is well placed in the region, and it is one of the countries that has a very small percentage compared to the number of citizens who are on the verge of hunger. , reminding us that we must not “confuse food security and self-sufficiency”. He indicated that self-sufficiency is gradually being achieved following the agricultural policies that have been implemented.

It is worth noting that the USDA, in its latest report, estimated that wheat production is expected to increase to 3 million tonnes by the end of the 2024/2025 season. At the origin of this positive outlook, the improvement in rainfall in the production areas of the center and east of the country, where precipitation was most frequent. According to the USDA, the area sown is expected to remain unchanged at 1.8 million hectares while crop yield is expected to increase by 11% to 1.67 tonnes per hectare.