Ecosystems in Algeria
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Land and water management: challenges for Algeria's food security
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, [1]) defines food security as a situation “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Food security is a basic need for all human beings. It contributes to individual and social well-being through health, economic, spatial and social development and life in general. Food insecurity is often related to poverty. It is also related to governance and the right for people to feed themselves (right based approach and food sovereignty concept). A. Sen (1999) [1] said that famines do not occur in functioning democracies, and recently there have been several riots and violence spurted from food price hikes. Finally, food security is also associated with culture since in almost all countries, large parts of the national culture is deeply rooted in rural and farming, habits and dietary knowledge.
Locally – (meaning at national and sub-national levels) produced food contributes to food security. Most commodities that make food come from agriculture (in its broad sense). Land and water are two major resources for agriculture. Effective and sustainable management of these two resources is a major task. It becomes even more important when these resources are scarce and the threats on them great.
Algeria is located in the Maghreb, a region of North Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa with some 2.4 million square kilometres, but around 90% is covered by desert. Only a part of the remaining land is arabler. Water is often scarce, even in the non-desert regions. The management of both these resources (land and water) is therefore a major issue and an issue of survival for Algeria. Moreover, these resources are under several threats: land impoverishment (erosion, etc.), population and urbanization extensions, competition (drinking water and irrigation), climate changes etc. Information and data on these two resources and their management are of prime importance for those concerned with food security.
Several data are needed depict and manage land and water resources with regard to their role in food security. These range from total areas (cultivated, non cultivated, under vegetation, etc.) to agriculture labour wages (for instance to cultivate the land), to quantitative and qualitative impacts of erosion to future population needs. Firstly, only basic data such as population (total, farming, present and trends), arable land areas, total productions and imports (for some selected commodities), yields (idem), and population’s needs for staple food will be used.
The case of wheat
Algerians are bread eaters. Algerians are the 6th largest wheat consumer in the world with an annual consumption of some 201 kg of wheat per capita.
Wheat sources: major sources of food data (e.g. the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA [2])) reveal information including that Algeria hardly produces 30% of the wheat it needs. The balance is imported. Algeria, with only 33 million inhabitants, is the 12th largest importer of wheat in the world. Oil and gas represent over 97% of export revenue [2] implying a strategically dangerous position.
References:
- ↑ Sen A.K. "Democracy as Freedom" (Anchor, 1999)
- ↑ http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_exp-energy-oil-exports http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Algeria/Background.html
