On the world market, faced with the Ukrainian crisis, corn prices continue to rise. More serious, it concerns as much the old harvest as those to come.
Ultimately, this price increase threatens the supply of maize to the poultry industry in Algeria. What can be the palliatives and the place of barley produced locally?
Specialized sites report that corn deliverable in June 2022 gains 8.5 €/tonne to 312 €/t, while that deliverable in November 2022 increases by 2.75 €/t, to 260 €/t. Already high, the price of chicken could cost even more in Algeria.
A major maize exporter, Ukraine can no longer supply the world market. Because of the war, bulk carriers specializing in the transport of grain diverted from the grain ports of Mariupol and Odessa, where the silos were filled with grain.
Ukraine, fears over March sowing
For Thierry Blandinières, CEO of the InVivo group, the situation is serious. “ We have 350 employees in Ukraine and 250 in Russia. The situation particularly impacts malting activities, agricultural activities and a trading office. All are shut down and closed. We have cut the computer circuits, for safety, the French employees have returned and our Ukrainian employees are at home but some can be mobilized. Everyone is waiting .”
Speaking in recent days at the Paris International Agricultural Show, he said he was worried about the upcoming sunflower and corn sowings. The month of March will be decisive. Otherwise, South American maize will remain on the world market.
Under these conditions, the purchases of Algerian operators should be strongly impacted, especially since the soybean meal used in poultry farming is also experiencing an increase.
Corn is the energy food par excellence, its grain concentrates a maximum of energy easily assimilated by animals and especially poultry. Also, it remains a basic element of the food ration of farms.
Corn, imports of 4 million tons
In Algeria, local grain corn needs are colossal. They amount annually to 4 million tons. Faced with these growing imports, public services are encouraging investors to produce maize, particularly in the far south under irrigation.
But unlike wheat and barley, grain corn is a summer crop, so it requires heavy irrigation. Yields obtained in Algeria reach 80 to 100 quintals per hectare, but cultivated areas remain small and cover only a tiny part of requirements.
In addition, the cultivation of grain corn faces competition from that of fodder corn deemed more profitable by producers. This maize is packaged in the form of wrapped bales.
Faced with the lack of fodder, the impulse of breeders and government aid, this type of production is experiencing strong development. Today, tractor-trailer trucks carrying these huge one-tonne round bales can be seen coming up from the south where production is done under pivot after the wheat harvest. This type of production is gradually spreading to the north of the country.
Palliatives to the use of maize
While grain maize remains an essential source of energy in animal husbandry, it can however be replaced by other cereals, particularly in the case of ruminants. A first measure of national interest could be to reduce the presence of grain maize in rations intended for ruminants in order to reserve it only for poultry farms.
The Birtouta Livestock Technical Institute in western Algiers has carried out trials to partially replace the grain corn contained in the rations with barley. These tests carried out, both on broilers and laying hens, show that the share of barley can amount to 20% of the rations. By facilitating the digestion of barley, the addition of enzymes to the ration makes it possible to further reduce the proportion of maize.
Triticale is another type of cereal that can be easily grown locally since it does not require irrigation. Its interest comes from the fact that ” triticale starch is well digested by chicken ” as recognized since 2015 by Arvalis, the French Plant Institute.
However, this type of palliative is not encouraged. In February 2020, at the Palais des Nations in Algiers, in front of members of the government, walis and heads of Daïra, the President of the Republic had indicated: ” We know how to import but we do not know how to sell”.
On this occasion, he scolded the Algerian Interprofessional Cereals Office (OAIC) and the Cattle Feeds Office (ONAB), accused of having become accustomed to imports at the expense of the development of local production. Private animal feed manufacturers are also focused solely on importing raw materials.
When Algeria exported barley
In 2010, following an exceptional campaign, the OAIC exported 10,000 tonnes of barley to Tunisia. And this for the first time since 1967. The 2009 agricultural campaign allowed a harvest of 62 million quintals, including 24 million quintals of barley. A feat to repeat…
For Professor Arezki Mekliche of the National School of Agronomy (ENSA), who spoke recently on Channel III of the Algerian Radio, the production of barley is “much easier” than that of wheat . hard or soft.
This researcher who has devoted his career to cereals is familiar with research-action programs. For him, it is becoming urgent to review current techniques and provide substantial financial incentives for them. Thus, the purchase price of harvests by the OAIC should be “ close to those applied on international markets”.
40% of wheat land worked only every other year
One of the brakes on the increase in the production of cereals, and in particular barley, remains the considerable amount of cereal land left fallow each year.
Inherited from the colonial practice of dry-farming, this practice continues and many farmers have become fervent followers. However, local agronomic research has shown that “ the role of water conservation attributed to tilled fallow really only exists for areas with sufficient rainfall and deep soils ”.
And again, it is necessary for this that “ spring plowing is done early enough”. However, in practice, this plowing is often delayed by lack of equipment but also by the fact that these temporary meadows are used to graze livestock. The continuation of the practice of fallowing is therefore questionable.
By itself, the increase in sown areas is not enough, a technical renewal is necessary. The past agricultural campaign has shown how much the current low technical level puts barley crops at the mercy of the slightest drought.
Last January the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abdelhafid Henni, told the National People’s Assembly that, during the last season, only 135,000 quintals of barley had been collected by the OAIC against several million quintals in other years.
The production of barley and import substitutes raises many questions. Faced with the considerable rise in maize prices, it requires the mobilization of additional material, human and financial resources. On their own, the agricultural services struggle to ensure the supervision of producers. Flour mills and livestock feed manufacturers have significant resources and could contribute to the national effort.
