Algeria, which has just made a massive return to importing red meat to meet local demand and stop the spiral of rising prices for these products, is unveiling a development plan for sheep farming.
A sectoral committee responsible for livestock has just been set up at the level of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The installation of this body comes in a context marked by an increase in meat prices and the lack of fodder linked to drought.
Agricultural services are thus trying to give new impetus to sheep farming. This desire is reflected in the latest census of the sheep herd, which should make it possible to sell barley at a regulated price to breeders only.
This sectoral committee brings together representatives of the Union of Algerian Peasants (Unpa), the National Chamber of Agriculture, economic institutions as well and agricultural research institutes.
The committee should rely on the results of the latest census of the sheep population in order to plan future development operations.
This is the case for animal feed and the sale of barley at administered prices. From now on, as announced in mid-August by the Minister of Agriculture, Abdelhafid Henni, during a trip to Naâma, this type of sale should continue throughout the year at a price not exceeding 3,200 DA the quintal. To this end, the annual amount of 7 billion DA per year linked to this operation is covered by the State.
The new development plan for sheep farming in Algeria is based on the “ fairer ” distribution of subsidized barley to breeders.
The daily quota allocated per ewe, which was 300 g of barley, recently increased to 600 g before being increased to one kilo. The definition of future sales quotas should include lambs, rams, and other animal species, such as camels.
In return, the sale should only be accessible to registered owners who have a fellah card issued by the local Chamber of Agriculture.
How Algeria plans to revive sheep farming
The committee should also monitor the operations of so-called triangular contracts between breeders, the national livestock feed office (Onab), and the Algerian Red Meat Company (Alviar).
For the ministry, it is therefore a question of relying on the reorganization of the sale of barley at administered prices and one-off imports in order to achieve stability in meat prices.
The committee should also monitor questions of genetic selection of the sheep herd and its health coverage. For this purpose, it includes veterinarians and representatives of the National Center for Artificial Insemination and Genetic Improvement (Ceniaag).
Beyond the announcements concerning the priorities of the Ministry of Agriculture in terms of breeding, it is worth noting the method used. This monitoring committee includes the National Chamber of Agriculture represented by its national secretary. Through this participation, there appears a timid desire to involve professional agricultural organizations.
Participation is all the more necessary as the challenges are enormous both in terms of the number of breeders and the extent of the steppe zones. In these regions, the lack of fodder is endemic. Livestock farming only survives there thanks to imported barley sold at regulated prices to breeders.
For many academics, this addition of barley has a perverse effect. It encourages the presence of a large number of animals while the steppe environment does not have time to renew its vegetation. The resulting overgrazing is the cause of the desertification of part of these territories, as evidenced by the sandstorms which can completely obscure the sky in broad daylight.
Measures to identify breeders should make it possible to limit speculation on barley. Until now, fake breeders benefited from the sale of barley at administered prices which they resold at prohibitive prices on the black market during lean periods.
However, this measure alone cannot resolve the structural fodder deficit. The allocation of agricultural concessions from 1983 within the framework of Accession to Agricultural Land Ownership (APFA) as well as agricultural subsidies within the framework of the various agricultural development plans are at the origin of profound changes in the steppe in Algeria.
Olive and cereal plantations are reducing pasture areas, angering breeders, but the development of drilling has enabled the growth of fodder crops: barley, vetch hay, oats, alfalfa, and corn silage.
University studies have made it possible to draw up a typology of breeders. Owners of 6,000 head rub shoulders with small breeders with 100 to 200 head when it is not twenty as in the case of unemployed people.
Co-author of a study in the Djelfa region, researcher Mohamed Kanoun noted in 2016 the diversity of breeding methods. To the traditional farrow breeders practicing occasional fattening, he notes the presence of farrow-fattening breeders throughout the year, but also of farrow-fattening breeders during religious periods (Ramadhan and Aid El Adha).
To improve sheep meat production in Algeria, agricultural services are trying to reach out to a multitude of breeders scattered over a vast territory.
In the absence of professional breeder organizations, their action remains ad hoc and very limited. It is characterized by the allocation of subsidies, as is the case with the supply of barley to breeders and vaccination campaigns.
However, apart from trying to better distribute subsidies in the form of barley quotas, very few actions aim to organize the profession.
Apart from the pilot farms managed by Alviar and those of large private breeders partnering with veterinarians, the technical level of Algerian breeders remains very low.
Within herds, births are spread out throughout the year whereas common sense would dictate that they are concentrated in the periods when the supply of pastures is richest, the animals receive the same food rations despite a different weight, selection is not possible in the absence of regular weighing of the lambs, veterinary care remains insufficient and expensive.
Barley distributions are not accompanied by supervision and training for breeders. Not provided from outside, but coming from representative local associations and recruiting their own technicians. Associations participating in the management of steppe rangelands and local fodder production.
“ We only know how to do that, raise sheep,” a breeder recently declared. In Algeria, the steppe zones also lack non-agricultural jobs. The fragility of the natural environment cannot provide income for all the young people who enter the job market each year. This raises the question of the diversification of economic activity in the steppe regions. It also remains to be seen in which sector the profits from steppe breeding are reinvested.
