To meet the demand for wheat and reduce dependence on imports of this widely consumed product, Algeria is encouraging private investment in Saharan agriculture.
Public groups are also encouraged to participate in the adventure. This is the case of the public company Global Agrifood which cultivates wheat from the Algerian desert.
After the public construction giant Cosider and the oil company Sonatrach, it is the turn of the public holding company Madar to position itself in the agricultural sector. Its subsidiary Global AgriFood (GAF) has recently operated an agricultural concession of 2,000 hectares in Gassi Touil near the Hassi Messaoud oil wells.
A sign of the importance given to the project by local authorities, it was the wali of Ouargla himself who, in the fall of 2023, symbolically launched the sowing campaign.
Why does Algeria encourage the cultivation of wheat in the desert?
At the foot of an irrigation pivot, GAF technicians pour bags of fertilizer into a tank connected to the watering system. An agricultural engineer told the media La Patrie News: “It’s ammonium sulfate. This type of fertilizer allows you to reduce the acidity of the soil from 8 to 6.4. This allows the elements to be better assimilated by plants.”
He adds: “We split the contributions, at the rising stage, wheat requires a lot of nitrogen fertilizer”. An essential fractionation in these predominantly sandy Saharan soils where the soils do not retain fertilizers, which requires increasing doses compared to wheat grown in the fields of northern Algeria.
A speech that contrasts with what is done on certain concessions developed by private investors who are still little aware of agricultural subtleties. A deficit in know-how was noted, in 2023 in El Menia, by agricultural engineer Zakaria Alem during an interview with the press.
GAF relies on technology and implements major resources. On-site, agronomic engineers and electromechanical maintenance technicians are responsible for monitoring the twenty pivots already installed and the 7 drillings carried out out of the 35 planned. 250 meter deep boreholes which provide the water necessary for irrigating wheat in the middle of the desert.
In addition to the pivots, it is a question of ensuring the electrical supply of the pumps which raise the water from the groundwater.
In the absence of a connection to the electricity network, generators ensure the operation of the installations and the “ life base ” of the concession.
A hamlet made of Saharan cabins like what is practiced on Sonatrach oil sites. The dimensions of the agricultural concession are such that travel is done in 4 x 4 vehicles.
Growing wheat in the desert in Algeria: yields of 70 quintals
The local climate allows for an early harvest. Wheat is harvested in May and corn is immediately sown. Corn is harvested as silage and preserved in the form of wrapped round bales. A method of conservation that has transformed certain areas of the South into a dairy hub like the Ghardaïa region.
Lotfi Boughrara is proud to announce average yields of 68 quintals of wheat, with “ peaks of 70 quintals ”, specifies the engineer.
These yields are honorable and far from the 40 quintals necessary to cover the costs inherent to this method of cultivation.
In the middle of the desert, during the six months of wheat cultivation, irrigation is permanent and all the more costly as the depth of the water table increases. Also, among the charges, those relating to the energy supply of the motor pumps are the highest.
Yield gains are still possible. As evidenced by the plots with ears of wheat lying on the ground by the wind and therefore difficult to harvest. A “ lodging ” phenomenon that can be reduced by the choice of suitable varieties and growth regulators, the only means of strengthening the stem of the plants having to support the heavy ears corresponding to yields of 80 quintals.
Faced with wind storms and insufficient harvesting equipment, the engineer assures that the solution lies in the “ need for permanent control in the face of the harsh climate of the region”.
A level of performance that may be called into question in subsequent years. Paradoxically, the danger can come from water. In 1996, soil study specialist Rabah Lahmar noted that for one hectare of wheat in the desert which consumes 6,000 m³ of water, if it contains 2 grams of salt per liter, ” the crop can then leave 12 tonnes of salt in the ground at the end of the cycle”.
Following a field observation campaign, he then noted: “Five irrigation campaigns, in the pilot farms of Gassi Touil, were enough to multiply by six the salinity level of the first 20 centimeters of the soil.”
He then warned: “These salinity levels are largely sufficient to cause a significant drop in durum wheat yields. Yields have fallen by almost half.”
This problem of salt contained in irrigation water is known in certain oases by the whitish color that the surface of the soil sometimes takes on. The solution for investors is then to move their pivots.
Growing wheat in the desert in Algeria: the problem may come from water
The technical manager of the Madar concession details the achievements: 18 pivots are devoted to wheat for consumption and 9 others to the multiplication of seeds”. Wise decision.
In the fall of 2023, following the drought that affected northern Algeria, the supply of farmers with wheat seeds was only possible thanks to production from the South. Only a series of trucks traveling hundreds of kilometers made it possible to restart a crop cycle and the current cereal campaign.
In this agricultural concession located in the desert, near a forest of pipes, a team of technicians is installing new pivots supplied by the public company Anabib.
Each can irrigate 30 hectares and requires the mobilization of lifting equipment for its installation. Nearby, a construction machine is digging a trench that should accommodate the electrical cable essential to the operation of the pivot.
Seen from the sky, the drilling of a new artesian well shows a striking resemblance to the oil wells of Hassi Messaoud. The experience of Sonatrach’s oil prospecting is not without having influenced the “groundwater economy ” and this exploitation of underground water in the Sahara.
The former CEO of Sonatrach, Abdelmadjid Attar likes to say that during his appointment as minister of hydraulics in the 2000s, the prime minister at the time told him: “You have experience in drilling oil wells, we thought it would be useful to you in the field of hydraulics.
The choice of setting up GAF in the wilaya of Ouargla is not innocent. On numerous occasions, this wilaya has experienced protest movements by young unemployed people. Many of the technical agents present on the site come from the Touggourt Regional Professional Training Center.
For Lotfi Boughrara, “the [agricultural] future of Algeria is in the Algerian Sahara”. The head of Global AgriFood believes that this region has the potential to “achieve food self-sufficiency and feed Europe”. An optimism that assumes the permanence of water resources and the fight against the accumulation of salt. A salt that could transform this “green paradise” into a white hell in a few years.
