L'agriculture au Sahara du sud-ouest algérien: Entre développement agricole moderne et permanences de l'agriculture oasienne traditionnelle

Abstract

Oasis agriculture reflects the ingenuity of a society able to overcome hostile and unfavorable conditions for settlement. In Algeria, this traditional agriculture was severely affected by the introduction of non-agricultural employment, thus disrupting the social configuration. The new State policy based on agricultural development has been established since 1983 to replace this traditional agriculture, considered less profitable and a source of many problems (lack of workforce, declining of traditional foggara irrigation systems.), and to develop cereal production in the region, negating any previous social organization. Since then, the interest of the state focused on modern agriculture through various subsidies. This attitude has further weakened the interest for oasis agriculture in favor of employment in services and administration, or in the new agricultural development schemes. But recently, some changes have been observed, especially in oases formerly declining. Indeed, at a time when the service sector is overcrowded and State subsidies are gradually decreasing, the oasis dwellers have decided to adapt themselves by trying to return to work the land in the abandoned palm groves. The current period is thus characterized, not by a competition of modern versus traditional oasis agriculture, but by a development of a new vision of a liberal nature. These new trends in traditional and modern Saharan agriculture are in fact an adaptation to the country's political and economic context.