ALGIERS – The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohamed Abdelhafid Henni, said Thursday in Algiers that the Davos Economic Forum ranked Algeria, in its latest report, among the “leading” countries in the world in terms of food security through its national production.
In a speech delivered during the work of the Government-Walis meeting, the opening of which was chaired by the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, at the Palais des Nations, under the theme “Local development: evaluation and prospects”, Mr. Henni welcomed the results of the latest report of the Davos Economic Forum, published on January 17 (two days ago), in which the Forum affirmed Algeria’s ranking among the leading countries in the world in terms of food security through its national production.
In this context, the report underlined, according to Mr. Henni, that the share of agricultural production per capita “has doubled over the past two years, thanks to the efficiency of the agricultural model adopted by the public authorities”.
The results of this report are in addition to those concluded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which had ranked Algeria in first place at the Arab and African levels, for three executive years ( 2020, 2021 and 2022), in terms of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the area of food security, added the Minister.
In this regard, Mr. Henni considered that the changes that have occurred since 2020 on all levels “confirm the forward-looking vision of the President of the Republic, who has registered the need for the implementation of an urgent plan to modernize the agriculture, among its 54 commitments, to ensure food security, meet national needs and end food dependency”.
In his speech, the Minister referred to the measures taken in the field of agricultural land, in particular the granting of a land portfolio to the Office for the Development of Industrial Agriculture in Saharan Lands (ODAS), with an area estimated at 233,000 hectares for the benefit of 210 investors.
As part of the conversion of the right of perpetual enjoyment into a concession in accordance with Law N 10-03, the Minister reported 186,214 deeds drawn up out of a total of 190,014 compliant files (98%) i.e. an overall area of 2,139,358 hectares.
With regard to interministerial circular No. 750 relating to the exploitation of agricultural land without titles, 13,229 cases of farmers exploiting an area of 151,526 hectares at the level of 21 wilayas have been identified.
In this wake, Mr. Henni described the decision of the President of the Republic as “historic” because it will make it possible to regularize the situation of the farmers concerned who have suffered from it for a long time”, recalling that “the latter and their families worked in these farms for decades without titles”.
The operation will begin next February, according to the first manager of the sector.
Regarding local development, an ambitious program has recently been set up for the development of 100,000 hectares dedicated to fruit trees (2023-2025), thus making it possible to enhance unused areas, particularly in the steppes and mountains.
The Minister also insisted on the importance of the plan for the rehabilitation and expansion of the green dam decided by President Tebboune in August 2020 with a view to instilling a local economic dynamic capable of improving the populations’ incomes and bringing added value to the national economy.
The project extends over an area of 3.5 million hectares (20 km wide and 1500 km long) and affects 13 wilayas, 183 municipalities and nearly 800 localities and 7 million inhabitants or 18% of the population.
This new approach to the rehabilitation of this megaproject consists of the involvement of local communities in terms of the fight against desertification in all its dimensions and the expansion of the overall area to more than 5.4 million hectares by 2030″, according to the minister’s explanations.
