Algeria launches Rural Renewal Programme
2008-01-31
Algeria's Rural Renewal Programme has officially begun, with the training of the first group of regional experts tasked with implementing and overseeing the projects in the field. The multi-billion dinar programme aims to stimulate economic activity in the rural areas that are home to 40% of Algerians.
By Mohand Ouali for Magharebia in Algiers – 31/01/08
 [Getty Images] Algeria's Rural Renewal Programme aims to teach officials and citizens to use the full potential of Algeria's rural regions, where 40% of the country's population lives. |
The Algerian government recently approved a programme intended to revitalise the country's rural areas – home to more than 13 million Algerians, or 40% of the population. Agriculture officials will recruit some 20,000 trainers before the end of June to implement the Rural Renewal Programme (PRR), developed by the agriculture and rural development ministry.
The new policy was sanctioned by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in October 2006. Following a successful pilot phase that concluded in 2007, it will be formally rolled out over the next five years.
The PRR will teach officials and citizens to use the full potential of Algeria's different regions – including local skills, initiatives and existing financial incentives – to fuel dynamic, sustainable growth.
The programme also seeks to improve living and working conditions for rural populations and ensure they do not miss out on the benefits of globalisation. It will also aim at improving food safety at home.
The cornerstone of the strategy is the Rural Development Partnership Project (PPDR). Projects deemed beneficial to the greater goal of sustainable development are eligible for government co-operation, provided they satisfy a set of criteria. Project initiators can be individuals or groups, but the project must be economically viable, socially acceptable, and respectful of the environment.
Qualifying projects are not limited to agriculture – they could just as likely be related to commerce, crafts, tourism, fishing, education, culture, the environment, industry or new technologies.
Verifying the feasibility of projects and understanding their procedures and financial considerations is not an easy task. Units have been set up at sub-regional and local levels to pool the skills of local experts and apply them to the evaluation process.
It is at this level that trainers become involved. Their task is to teach the leaders of these units to assess the region to highlight existing resources, to choose strong projects that are innovative, to encourage more cultural projects, and to forge links between university research and business.
The first three-day seminar for trainers began on Sunday (January 27th). Participants were chosen based on their skills: field experts, academics, researchers, teachers and agriculture workers will make up the first panel.
Minister Delegate for Rural Development Rachid Benaïssa, who presided over the opening of this first seminar, highlighted the need to eradicate disparities between urban and rural areas and to restore the historic importance of Algeria's rural population.
Re-stating his conviction that "there are no areas without hope, no areas without plans", Benaïssa explained that the success of the programme depends on the promotion of local skills and the decentralisation of the decision-making process.
The PRR, he added, will enable better governance of rural areas and promote the stability of local populations and the nation.
On January 13th, the minster delegate explained to the press that the PRR rests on three essential tools: a bank of partnership projects, a database of all the country's communes to assist in decision-making, and a system to monitor projects which will be accessible to experts online.
These tools, Benaïssa said, boost the legitimacy of the programme. "Transparency is the best way to avoid financial resources being squandered and to fight corruption."
Official figures show the Algerian government has allocated ten billion dinars to cover implementation of the PRR in 2008.
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kastalli Chérif Posted 2008-02-05
"The RRP is an Ambitious Program." The agricultural sector is currently going through an unprecedented earthquake: world grain prices are soaring and norms that have long been established are being jostled. Major wheat-importing countries—e.g. Egypt, Mexico, Mauritania, Jordan, Morocco, etc.—are at risk of collapse. The spectre of 1980s’ bread riots looms over many countries and has not helped the performance and competitiveness of their production systems. Observers are wondering about planning structures and whether state forecasts on the part of their larger commissions should be relied upon. Why is it that they did not predict such a situation? Why is it that they have been content with just balancing the state’s budget without a concern for external trade factors that are responsible for regional balance? Low yields, lack of mastery in production techniques, land parcelling, the inability of farmers to organise themselves, the absence of an approach to bioclimatic change, irrational investment and even irregular rainfall is forcing Algeria to improve its competitiveness in the context of openness and globalisation, and, as a consequence, push for investment and the creation of new jobs. In an effort to preserve purchasing power and to avoid wage disputes and unions' moaning, the government has found the easy way out in importing grain subsidised three times over by rich countries. They are subsidised at their cultivation, they are subsidised at their harvest, and they are subsidised at their export. This approach has damaged the country’s production systems quite a bit, as they are paying for low-level products at a chronic deficit and… TO BE CONTINUED
kastalli Chérif Posted 2008-02-05
CONTINUATION under "The RRP is an Ambitious Program"… This approach has damaged the country’s production systems quite a bit, as they are paying for low-level products at a chronic deficit and an increasing reliance on imports. This orientation has damaged the system of grain production in this country far too much. Every time the farmers ask for the price of wheat to be raised, our technocrats and big committees retort with “the local wheat prices cost us a lot and we can find it cheaper elsewhere.” In principle, during the 1960s when the communal agricultural policy was being implemented, the countries of the third-world retaliated by setting up their own national agricultural policies. There you have it: now, Algeria is undertaking the ambitious Rural Renovation Program (RRP). The cornerstone of the program is its aim to improve the living and working conditions of rural populations, and to ensure that they enjoy the benefits of globalisation. The implementation of this program necessitates the involvement of professionals. Thus, it will also be necessary to develop an approach that promotes professional structures, e.g. the grouping of wheat producers, livestock breeders, vegetable growers, etc.. The involvement of said professional structures will demand that the RRP concern itself with plan-making, that is: the elaboration of a communal plan, including making, executing and maintaining decisions in order to ensure the sustainability of gains. These structures will play a very important role in the success of this programme. And, these structures should be elected; the administration should not get involved with their management or the selection of their members, so as not to give rise to the feeling of subordination to the state gendarme, even though Algeria desires to be a welfare state.
kastalli Chérif Posted 2008-02-05
CONTINUATION and CONCLUSION under “The RRP is an Ambitious Program”… The creation of such a program should not be the object of a state programmes, rather the emergence of these structures should come about spontaneously in the environs of the area in question, for example: communal management of watering points, milk-collection centres, the purchasing needs of silage and harvesters, etc. These structures will be indispensable partners in the realisation and concerted implementation of development programmes. Accompanying measures will also be necessary and will include basic infrastructure, bringing access to isolated regions and the extension, education and installation of technology. This participatory approach is also indispensable in the sense that it creates a dynamic rural area and that the population will take charge of certain activities such as protecting, preserving and maintaining its achievements. –Kastalli Chérif, President of the Mediterranean Organisation for Development (l’Association Méditerranéenne pour le Développment.) 5, rue Ibn Rachik, Béja 9000, Tunisia.
belhadja Posted 2008-02-07
Yet another plan!? And, what of the status of other plans, the PNDRA & PNDA? Our country is held in dependence of outsiders deliberately. I am convinced of this. If there is any sincerity in the plans being made here, then let us dare to review the plans we already have so as not to make the same mistakes. Let us capitalise on them. I am convinced that all the plans already made were just done for electoral platforms. The RRP would have to cover 2,300,000 square kilometres and, meanwhile, the country imports everything. This damned oil money is at fault for developing this individualist spirit, which the government is unfortunately using to propagandist ends. The economic growth of the country really just represents the growth of a few men’s fortunes and their governmental vassals.
tiffeche Posted 2008-02-22
I completely agree with Belhadja: the decision-makers want to totally destroy our national production so as to be able to import at a maximum. Every 100 kilograms of wheat produced in Algeria translates into a lack of import for the Algerian National Cereal Office (OAIC) and private importers. How else explain the late delivery of basic fertilisers and the total lack of cover fertilisers (urea) at just the right moment? The list of obstacles is long—there is no agricultural bank in Algeria, etc.—and the farmers are subjected to this daily.
felah Posted 2008-03-02
How can we talk of agricultural development when, given the daily problems he faces, the main factor of production, the farmer, has never received appropriate remuneration for his harvest. First off, helping by offering all farmers wishing to get established in the field the possibility to acquire credit going towards construction—meaning: to establish the surface construction, not to mention habitable land by industrial occupants—would permit the farmers to regularize their situation by giving them insurance. Building structures near Felah would allow for those who are able to support farmers to extend, orient and advise production efforts. This would not be like the current structures (for example: the S.D.A., which is corrupt and inefficient when it comes to production), but an agricultural bank comprised of graduates from agricultural schools. These graduates would be trained to give advice, knowing how investment plans involved in production and able to monitor the outcome on the field. In conclusion, with these kinds of problems it is most important to listen to the farmer, and not just leave it all up to debate. The cost of products— fertilisers, plant products, production equipment—not to mention the uncertainty involved in him being able to produce these commodities and to make a profit from them, are enriching our agents on our, the farmer’s, backs.
manseur aissa Posted 2008-03-08
The Rural Renewal Programme is ambitious. I, for one, as an agrologist in the professional education sector can say that such development cannot be successful unless we give enough importance to the development of our human capital as well. If we analyse our current rural world, we can easily deduce that complete absence of a way out of this deadlock with regards to our skilled workforce, especially in the wilayas in the interior of the country. I argue this point of view because when traveling you can see how the orchards are poorly maintained: fruit-bearing trees are poorly pruned or not pruned at all; standards for tilling are not respected, no maintenance system has been implemented for farming machinery; and so on. That is why I suggest that it is imperative to have a representative of the Planned Education Committee (FP) be an involved member of the community in order to try to sensitise the population and have them benefit from an education in the dozens of specialties this strategic sector offers and which apply directly to the rural world.
ingénieur agronome Posted 2008-03-12
Yet another programme to get all the Agricultural Directors (for example: the DSA, District and Delegate directors, etc.) rich. The exceptions are the peasant farmers and the true agronomic engineers. In the end, in my capacity as an agronomic engineer and a manager of a agricultural studies and advisory office, I can tell you that all these programmes are destined to get the rural population’s vote. The evidence comes in the 20 studies I did before the Rural Renewal Programme in 2005. The result was FRUITLESS: everything was blocked. *Moreover, from now until 2025, 90 per cent of the agricultural studies offices will be closed.*
aline lamine Posted 2008-04-26
I would like to work with soil, but I do not have a degree. What should I do?
asd Posted 2008-05-04
We want conditions for investment in the agricultural sector in brotherly Algeria, in terms of the rights and obligations of Gulf investors in growing crops, vegetables, breeding cattle and whether there are investment taxes or if is there an exemption. Thank you.
un peu de serieux Posted 2008-07-28
To start with, the DSA is giving us inflated figures, making the PPDR programme look successful just to please their hierarchical superiors. There is no technical monitoring for the farmers, who are for the most part illiterate. Moreover, I think that the people who are preparing these programmes know nothing of agriculture. The programmes often are in the interest of certain fat cats. How else do you explain the well digging and drilling without electricity, the construction of basins without any water, and the construction of refrigerated rooms without having farmland, subsidised to the tune of 12 million diinars? Be serious for once in your life! If you, the leaders of Algeria and the Algerians, then who will?
Luheb Posted 2008-08-04
We should, The government should biggin by instoring a real financial system which can be able to manage our money...they never think to improve the productivity, the economic growth...they only engage in purelly consumption projects...to justify stealling of money... we should think about a federal management of our country like in USA...Kabyls are ready for the autonomy...what about other cities?
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