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Wheat Cultivation in Algeria in Danger

Throughout Algeria, prayers are multiplying for the rains to return. On social networks, photos of cracked soil and weak wheat stalks are more numerous every day.

After the risk of loss of breeds of sheep, a new reality appears that of the impossibility, in the future, of growing wheat without having to resort to irrigation.

More water in the sky and in the ground

Academics have measured the change in rainfall patterns. In the west of the country, over the past fifty years, the average rainfall has decreased by 50 to 100 mm.

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Recently, on channel III of the Algerian Radio, Brahim Mouhouche, a specialist in agricultural hydraulics, was worried about the current lack of rain and the potential effects on agricultural yields.

To grow, wheat does not require great water needs. The rains from October to June are sufficiently provided that between two showers, the soil stores a minimum of water to satisfy the needs of the plant.

However, it is this capacity of soils to store water that tends to be reduced in many cereal-growing areas in Algeria. In question, decades of practice of plowing and the use of straw inbreeding. The result is a decrease in the rate of organic matter in the soil. Agriculture is described as โ€œ mining โ€ by specialists.

Plowing that dries out the soil

โ€œI spent years explaining this to you. And few people listened. Now I’m over 60 and I don’t really want to move around for anything. Too bad I like you. At the beginning of February, Michel Dedenon gives his opinion on Algerian social networks about the danger posed by the practice of plowing. Plowing dries out the soil. This French expert advises several Algerian grain farmers and breeders.

The reason for this cry from the heart? Complaints from grain growers were upset following the second year of drought with no prospects for the modernization of agricultural practices.

โ€œIt hasn’t rained for 50 days, the seeds are as they were planted in December,โ€ exclaims Saรฏd Behaz, a cereals specialist from Batna. In support, a furrow of a plot where, in this month of February, he laid bare the seeds of wheat. โ€œ Looks like they just got buried. We hadn’t seen that since 1988,โ€ he continues.

Admittedly, not all regions are in the same boat. In the center, in December, the rains were abundant, moderately in the east but particularly absent in the west. Those who sowed dry at the end of October saw their wheat sprout, but with the drought that followed, many plots are sparse.

In the wheat granary of Rahouia (Tiaret), the agronomist Mokhtar Zair notes a reduction in the number of wheat plants and stalks: โ€œ In the best case, the density is around 150 plants per square meter. We are in the second half of February and the number of grains is being formed, especially in the early varieties. If the water stress continues until the end of February, this 2nd component will also be affectedโ€.

Sheep farming, low hand on the straw

The second cause of the reduction in the capacity of soils to store water comes from the export of straw from farms. The return to the ground of the straws is a necessity. It is common in the Canadian and Australian Great Plains where the risk of drought is constant.

Combine harvesters are all equipped with straw choppers. Cereal growers know that this is a way to improve the soil’s ability to retain rainwater. The humus resulting from the decomposition of buried straw acts like a sponge. And those remaining on the ground favor the infiltration of water into the ground.

On social networks, agronomist Hamoud Zitouni wonders how in Algeria the farmer could bury the straw when the price of a single 25 kg bundle currently costs 1000 DA.

The impasse of dry grain farming

The economic value of straw and its impossibility to be used to maintain soil fertility puts a part of cereal growing at a dead end.

On many surfaces, it becomes impossible to maintain any soil moisture. The wheat can no longer withstand the lack of rain, even for short intervals. However, supplemental irrigation cannot be extended to all areas, particularly those of marginal land.

In Sรฉtif, trials of residual sludge from wastewater treatment plants have increased the yield of cereals from 17 to 34 quintals per hectare.

In Tunisia, experiments in planting African alfalfa on degraded soil have shown that it is possible to restore soil fertility by increasing its organic matter content from 1% to 5%. The challenge for agricultural services is therefore to quickly define a strategy in order to match the needs of livestock farming and the maintenance of soil fertility.

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