Lingering drought prevents national cereals self-sufficiency in Algeria, says Agriculture minister

In an exclusive interview with Echorouk newspaper, the Agriculture Minister Said Barkat said that the long-running drought recorded over the past months has prevented Algeria from achieving self-sufficiency in terms of cereals production.

He also said that the lack in this year’s cereal production would be filled by sizable imports in order to ward off any shortage of cereals on the national market.

The Minister further referred to the role played by the Algerian cereals office whose ” professionalism”, he says, had spared  Algeria a severe backlash from the food crisis now besetting the international market as a result of a myriad of uncontrollable factors.

The government has allocated a financial package of 160 billion dinars to buttress staple commodities, what are the measures taken to this effect?

The ministry of agriculture and rural development has not awaited the current world food crisis to take the necessary steps to boost the national agricultural sector as part of the agriculture promotion strategy worked out by the government.

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The new measures aim at reaching food self-sufficiency notably through the expansion by over 500 thousand hectares of lands devoted to cultivation of agricultural products.

The lands for cultivation or arable lands, Barkat affirmed, rose from 500 thousand hectares in the year 2000 to more than 1 million hectares in 2006.

Among other figures showing a fair evolution of the national agricultural sector over the past 6 years, the Minister said that, for instance, the annual production of cereals had jumped from 20 million tonnes in 2000 to about 33 million tonnes in 2007.

Said Barkat added that a series of measures had also been enforced by the relevant authorities to combat desertification and ensure the maximum of pasture lands in the drought-hit regions of the country.

The overall national agricultural output, represents over 2.9 billion us dollars, he said.

The agriculture sector, he added, has allowed for the creation of 1.158.000 permanent jobs and for the setting up of 3.158 small enterprises geared to promoting investments in this vital field of endeavour.

The Minister indicated, to this effect, that thousands of youngsters had been employed in the agricultural sector after receiving the proper training.

Algeria imported this year 6 million tonnes of wheat, don’t you think that these big imports are running counter to the government’s strategy aimed at shoring up cereals production ?

As I said before, we have been compelled to resort to wheat imports because of the long-running drought which has bedevilled cereals production regions in various parts of the country.

We hope to curtail drastically the wheat imports with the rainfalls and with the enforcement of our strategy designed to boost cereals output so as to head off future shortages.