In a recent delivery, the National Statistics Office (ONS) establishes the figures for Algeria’s agricultural production for the year 2021.
The opportunity to look at the sectors in progress and those still lagging behind.
The statistical data published by the ONS come from a specialized department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The level of the main agricultural productions, whether plant or animal, is thus gathered.
The direction of information systems, statistics and forecasting has the task of summarizing everything that is produced in Algeria, from cereals, olive trees, and market gardening, through milk production to the number of eggs. This is a huge task.
Most of these figures for 2021 are known, but the interest of their publication by the ONS is to bring together in a single document very diversified and essential data for the various operators interested in the agricultural sector.
The ONS document concerns raw data that is not subject to any particular analysis.
For 2021, cereal production is announced at 27.6 million quintals against 43.9 million in 2020. The comparison between the two figures is accompanied by a note relating to unfavorable rainfall.
While the production of common wheat, barley and oats has fallen, that of triticale has increased. Although marginal, this cereal is interesting in poultry feed.
In 2021, Algerian grain maize production increased to nearly 35,000 quintals, a figure to be compared with the 4 million tonnes imported annually by Algeria and intended mainly for poultry farming.
The document does not mention the production of fodder maize, which has risen sharply in recent years thanks to cultivation carried out mainly in the south with pivot irrigation.
Forage maize is mainly harvested in the form of silage and packaged in wrapped round bales particularly appreciated by dairy farmers.
The industrial crops identified concern canned tomatoes and groundnuts; crops such as rapeseed, sunflower and sugar beets classified in this same category are only at the beginning of their forthcoming extension announced by the agricultural services.
In the case of canned tomatoes, in 2021 a 20% increase in production is noted with more than 23 million quintals.
Although discreet, there is an Algerian peanut production estimated at around one hundred thousand quintals, mainly produced in the wilayas of El-Oud and El-Tarf.
Beans, field beans, dried peas, lentils, chickpeas and dried beans are gathered in the pulses section, all approaching one million quintals.
Only dry beans recorded a significant increase, although the areas are marginal. Widely consumed products such as chickpeas and lentils remain insufficiently produced.
Producers complain about competition from imports, so recently the Algerian Cereals Office (OAIC) is responsible for the import monopoly of this type of product.
In the same section were classified the Algerian productions of grass peas and ” guerfalas ” or vetch with a production of 1,150 quintals.
These are forage legume seeds. This modest production is to be compared to the significant fodder needs.
The areas likely to receive this type of crop relate to cereal-growing areas and therefore several hundred thousand hectares of fallow land.
Arboriculture is also an area listed by the ONS. It is a question of a production of 15 million quintals of citrus fruits and nearly 15 million quintals of stone or pome fruits.
With more than 6 million quintals of grapes, the vineyard recorded an increase of more than 13% in its production. As for the Algerian production of raisins, this has been noted as practically insignificant since 2017.
Date production reached nearly 12 million quintals in 2021, up by more than 3%. Olive production is estimated at 7 million quintals, down 34%. The oeliculture sector suffered from the 2021 summer fires which ravaged the forests and orchards of northern Algeria. Until the production of figs which is listed with 665 quintals.
Breeding, figures with variable geometry
Cattle breeding has a stable figure of 1.7 million heads and has enabled the production of 3.2 billion liters of milk and 5.3 million quintals of red meat. However, with the drought, the risk of decapitalization due to a sharp rise in fodder prices has increased.
Recently, authorities have taken action against the slaughter of imported dairy cows.
Algeria has 4 million heads of poultry, which has produced 4 million quintals of white meat and 6 billion eggs.
Concerning sheep breeding, in 2021 it is estimated at 31 million heads against 29 million two years earlier.
Following doubts as to the real estimate of the livestock in Algeria, at the request of the Head of State, a census of breeders was carried out at the end of 2022.
He showed that the herd was in fact made up of 19 million head. The same request was made concerning the areas sown each year in cereals.
These appeared to be only 1.8 million hectares against a previous estimate of 3 million.
The difficulty of collecting statistics
The summary produced by the ONS shows the extreme diversity of local agricultural production as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
The expression in dinars of the values of agricultural production has not been approached by the ONS, yet it is meaningful and shows the progress made in recent years.
Last November, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohamed Abdelhafid Henni, made a presentation to the Finance and Budget Committee of the APN.
It appears that the overall value of Algeria’s agricultural production during 2022 amounts to approximately 4500 billion DA, according to provisional statistics, against 3500 billion DA in 2021, an increase of 31%. According to the APS agency: “ This production made it possible to cover national food needs with 75%”.
The state of agricultural production established by the ONS also shows the difficulty of establishing agricultural statistics for certain types of production, such as in the case of sheep farming.
The difference between estimate and field census reached 12 million heads. Even if some breeders have not declared all of their assets, the difference is significant.
It is certainly more difficult to count the number of sheep heads on a territory as vast as the Algerian steppe with its twenty million hectares than to count the number of chicks coming out of industrial hatcheries or boxes of tomato paste out of ‘factory.
The Head of State called for the development of the digitization of the agricultural sector in order to have more reliable data.
In order to cope with the current weakness of the statistical tool, it is a question of resorting to modern technologies such as drones or satellite images.
One can note the low rate of declarations by farmers of their cultivated areas, in particular those subject to subsidized crops.
As for unannounced checks on the ground by agents equipped with geo-located tablets, as is practiced in Europe for the control of subsidies granted within the framework of the common agricultural policy (CAP), it is still non-existent in Algeria.
The comparison by the ONS of the figures for the year 2021 with those for 2020 shows small variations but sometimes cyclical drops in production. It is also necessary to consider these data over a longer period, agriculture is a long-term field.
The fact remains that alongside dynamic sectors such as canned tomatoes and fodder maize, others are experiencing slower or erratic progress.
Also beyond their specificities, these statistics are an opportunity to question the causes of the successes and delays of the various agricultural sectors and to seek ways to remedy them.
