Potatoes, lettuce, and onions grow on sandy plots by the sea: in a village in northern Tunisia, farmers are trying to preserve an ancestral but delicate technique of irrigation of increased importance in the face of water shortages.
“It is not a land that we cultivate for profit, but for art and pleasure”, proclaims Ali Garci, a 61-year-old retired schoolteacher, who operates a hectare of land inherited from his family, in Ghar el Melh, a fishing village located about sixty kilometers from Tunis.
The “ramlis”, these sandy plots created in the 17th century by the Andalusian diaspora to compensate for the lack of cultivated land and freshwater, feed the inhabitants of the village more than ever.
And these crops on the sand, which cover about 200 hectares, were registered last year in the world agricultural heritage of the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organization), which considers them “unique in the world. “.
One way to encourage some 300 farmers to take care of this endangered heritage, while few young people are ready to take over.
– Tidal –
Between sea and cliffs, the Mediterranean coast of Ghar el Melh is bordered by saltwater lagoons.
Rainwater trickles down from the hills to the sandy lands surrounding the lagoons, where it remains trapped above a layer of saltwater.
The vegetables planted there plunge their roots into this thin layer of freshwater, which rises in the sand twice a day, pushed by the tides.
“It’s as if the sea was nursing its young,” explains Abdelkarim Gabarou, who has practiced cultivation on the sand for 46 years.
To protect them from wind and erosion, the plots are protected by canisses, and are a maximum of four meters wide.
This system makes it possible to cultivate all year round without artificial irrigation, producing up to 20 tonnes per hectare, and without drawing on nature’s reserves.
Vegetables have the reputation of having a particular taste and are in high demand, but they are not valued by a particular name, farmers regret.
They sell their products locally but also in Tunis, at the same prices as those cultivated in the land.
“We are totally dependent on rainwater, which sustains us. We try to preserve it as naturally as possible,” explains Ali.
The farmers of Ghar el Melh thus live in the constant concern of preserving this “fragile” system, threatened in particular by climatic disturbances which accentuate the irregularity of rainfall and raise the sea level.
In order for the roots of onions, lettuce, or beets to reach freshwater but not saltwater, the layer of sand must be exactly 40 cm.
The rise in sea level, therefore, risks disrupting this natural system, notes Raoudha Gafrej, an expert in water resources and climate change.
– Sea, lagoon, and sand –
In addition, this area popular with holidaymakers, with its long strip of white sand between the lagoon and the sea, and its wooded landforms, is subject to significant real estate pressure.
The stake is all the more important as the protection of traditional irrigation techniques is a weapon to fight against the growing water shortage in Tunisia.
This “ingenious system does not represent a large area” and it could not be copied elsewhere, “but we must preserve it because the country needs every drop of water”, underlines Ms. Gafrej.
The FAO estimates that Tunisia has 403 m3 of water per capita annually, well below the threshold of 1,000 m3 of renewable water necessary for an irrigation system to be sustainable.
Irrigated agriculture pumps up 80% of the country’s water resources, a sign of the importance of developing agriculture that is as water-efficient as possible, “an absolute rarity” in the region.
Other traditional systems are currently being relaunched.
On the island of Djerba (south-east), a hotspot for mass tourism faced with frequent water cuts in summer, an NGO has renovated around fifteen old basins, intended to store rainwater which is then distributed to the most disadvantaged.
“We must take root in this culture of water conservation,” argues Ms. Gafrej.
