History

History of extension and the enabling environment

After Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, wage laborers replaced the colonial farmers as occupants of the fertile land. Farming plots were merged into a vast self-managed farm (in French, autogestion) comprising over 2.5 million hectares of former colonial land and about 2,200 public farms. Following the colonial agricultural model, the self-managed sector made heavy use of mechanization and chemical fertilizers in order to produce exportable agricultural products such as wine, citrus, and vegetables. The autogestion did not perform well due to excessive bureaucracy and a lack of workers’ incentives. The private sector covering about 5.4 million hectares of poor quality lands was completely ignored by the policy-makers. Also, there was no mention of extension support. This situation prevailed from 1962 till 1970.

From 1971 to 1979 was the period of a socialist agrarian revolution in Algeria. The government confiscated the land of absentee landlords and re-distributed it among the landless people. Farmers, however, could not do well due to a lack of pro-farmer policies and the absence of institutions like extension, research and training. Although cooperatives were formed yet no incentive was given to the member farmers. The government resorted to industrialization involving industry, mining, energy and hydrocarbons, and more than 55 percent of the budget was allocated to the industrialization. The private agricultural sector was not given any attention, and the public agricultural sector was allocated just about 8 percent of the public budget.

During 1980’s, as the burden of agricultural imports increased, the government decided to revitalize the agricultural sector. The measures taken included less government control, enhanced private land ownership, merger of self-managed farms and cooperatives into a single sector called “socialist agricultural states”, reduced market control, increase in produce prices, provision of credit to both public and private sectors, and access to subsidized capital. The government dismantled individual state farms to create collective state farms. Under the “life after oil” concern, more importance was given to the agricultural sector. Irrigated areas were increased, markets including that for farm inputs were liberalized, properties reserved for the municipalities were sold to the public, input and product subsidies were eliminated, and the Algerian currency was drastically devalued in line with the IMF recommendations on structural adjustment.

In 1985, the Ministerial Circular 1055 was issued that, for the very first time, provided directions for organizing a national agricultural extension service comprising the following structures, each with its specific mission and goals: (a) administrative structure; (b) technical/scientific structure; (c) technical/logistic structure; (d) methodology support structure; (e) structures outside the Ministry of Agriculture. Obviously, too much emphasis on administrative structuring created a bureaucracy, which took almost the entire decision making in its hands without adequate knowledge of conditions in the field, and with minimal involvement of farmers and extension workers.  In 1995, the Executive Decree No. 95-99 led to the establishment of the National Institute for Extension (INVA). In 1996, the Executive Decree No. 96-97 provided recognition for extension agents, which essentially recognized the importance of extension for agricultural development.   

In 2000, the government launched the National Agricultural Development Program (PNDA), which in 2002 became the National Agricultural and Rural Development Program (PNDAR). The program included the development and modernization of farms, the intensification and expansion of irrigated areas, the enhancement of agricultural production and productivity through substantial investments, and appropriate, sustainable use of natural resources. An important role was assigned to extension services that included supervision, follow-up, evaluation, and technical guidance to the farmers. Investment in the agricultural sector was increased many folds. Initially, the PNDAR substantially increased both production and exports, but during recent years the exports have fallen considerably while imports of basic items such as wheat and milk have gone up. Various studies have identified a number of weaknesses in the program such as the farm modernization benefiting only a few selected farmers, a lack of objectivity in delivering official aid due to lack of farmers’ involvement, ownership constraints, deficiency of credit, insufficient access to inputs, insufficient water availability, weak farmer organizations, little agricultural training, a lack of extension support, marketing constraints, and red tape in official decision making.

The government has taken steps to reduce the number of bureaucratic structures, and has involved main actors at the local level including agricultural extension staff, researchers and progressive farmer leaders. The Agriculture Forum of 1992 stressed the need to further involve professionals in extension. In 1994, an agreement was reached between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chambers of Agriculture for progressive transfer of extension activities to the Chambers, supported by the field extension staff. Presently, an elaborate organizational structure exists for extension at all levels. Although there are coordination mechanisms between extension, research, forestry and veterinary institutions yet the coordination remains weak. Main extension constraints in the field include long distances between farms, a lack of transportation facilities, absence of proper offices, and few audio-visual aids to be used in educating farmers.  In 2008, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development launched the Rural Renewal Program.  The main objective of the program is capacity building of relevant human resources and the program seeks to improve living and working conditions of rural people.

The World Bank was the first among international donors to assist Algeria in the area of agricultural extension. The Agricultural Research & Pilot Extension Project was implemented from 1990 to 1997. The objective of the project was to develop research and extension services in order to increase agricultural production and reduce Algeria’s dependence on imported foodstuffs. The “Job Creation in Rural Area” was another project financed by the World Bank that focused on creating income generating opportunities for rural women, along with an extension component. Lately, the Bank has expressed its interest in supporting a program for modernization of Algeria’s agricultural sector.

Other extension-related projects include UNFPA’s “Integration of the Concepts of Reproductive Health and Family Planning in the Programs of Rural Development” Project; IFAD projects, “Development of Cereal Cultivation and Breeding in Small - and Medium-size Farms”; “Development of Oued Melleg in the Tebessa Wilaya”; and a German-Algerian Cooperation project, “Implementation of a Program for the Eradication of Illiteracy among Rural Girls Between 8 and 18 Years Old”. Some other bi-lateral and multi-later organization which have assisted Algeria include the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Canada, European Union (indicated in 2013 that Algeria will be provided assistance in establishing a system that classifies the country’ agricultural products by geographic origin), France, USAID, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, African Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Kuwaiti Development Fund, and the Saudi Fund for Development. In 2011, the governments of Algeria and Morocco signed three agricultural cooperation agreements, and one of them was specifically on agricultural extension.

Extension Providers

Public Institutions

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Ministere de l’Agriculture et du developpement Rural)

The Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development is responsible for providing public agricultural extension services to the farmers, and this responsibility is carried out by the Ministry’s Directorate of Research, Extension and Training (La Direction de la Formation de la Recherche et de la Vulgarisation). This directorate comprises three sub-directorates that individually cover research, training, and extension. Each sub-directorate has specific functions to perform. For example the functions of the Sub-Directorate of Extension include the defining of national extension policy in consultation with professional organizations, and the mobilization of necessary financial resources for the development of extension.

A National Extension Council exists within the ministry, which is assumed to be inter-disciplinary. The council’s mandate is to provide policy and programming advice and support to the extension services. The Agricultural Development Management Company (SDGA), which is under the Ministry, is also a national level public body. SDGA has 14 extension staff including 4 women and 10 men.

The National Institute of Agricultural Extension (INVA)
The National Institute of Agricultural Extension is an administrative public establishment and the focal point for the Ministry. INVA that was established in 1995 has been supporting the current agricultural and rural development policy in collaboration with the main beneficiaries, i.e. the agricultural professionals. The mission of INVA comprises the following:

1. Studies  and field research
   1. Extension systems, approaches and methodologies.
   2. Communication channels, means and techniques.
   3. Design and development of research methods and tools.
2. Technical support and activities in rural areas
   1. Establishment of coordination and facilitation mechanisms
   2. Development of campaigns and programs of national interest.
   3. Organization, monitoring and evaluation of extension activities.
   4. Development of training programs.
   5. Organization and evaluation of capacity building cycles.
3. Production and dissemination of extension materials
   1. Production of audio-visuals and media scripts on extension.
   2. Dissemination of information on farming and livestock rearing techniques through audio-visual materials and media scripts.
4. Capitalization, processing and dissemination of information
   1. Creation of an agricultural data bank.
   2. Processing and disseminating information.

National Agricultural Chambers
The National Agricultural Chambers is essentially a farmers’ association, which has offices at the national and provincial level. It develops its own extension program and activities within the framework of the national agricultural and rural development policies. The aim of the government is to eventually transfer the responsibility for agricultural extension to the Agricultural Chambers.

Extension organization at provincial and district levels
At provincial level, there is a WilayaExtension Coordination Committee comprising representatives of agricultural research, training, extension and other agricultural agencies. The committee defines extension policies and strategies, and supervises the extension programs implemented at the field level.  At the district level, there are Daira Agricultural Sub-Directorates, with necessary extension staff. Table 1 presents the number, gender and academic qualifications of the extension staff in various district offices as of 2009.

Table 1: Human Resources in Extension at District Offices of Algeria as of 2009

Source: http://www.worldwide-extension.org/africa/algeria/; [with corrected calculations]; F=Female; M=Male; Field=Field level; ICT=Information Communication Technology support; Training=In-service training; mgmt=Senior Management; N.A. =Not available

Agricultural Technical Institutes
Algeria has a vast network of agricultural technical institutes and other bodies that are engaged in commodity-specific research activities. None of the institutes directly provides extension services to the farmers. Research-extension linkages are weak and there is little joint programming in spite of the existence of coordination mechanisms. However, some of the institutes do perform certain tasks, which apparently support extension work in some way. A few examples are as follows:

• The Technical Institute of Field Crops (ITGC) indicates, among its several activities, the field crops development support, and assistance and facilitation of farmers.
• The Technical Institute of Industrial Crops and Gardening (ITCMI) tasks include the extension of agronomic practices, field demonstrations, training courses, and seminars.
• The Technical Institute of Livestock (ITELV) has promotion of farming techniques included in its list of focal areas.
• The National Institute of Orchards and Vineyards (ITAFV) supposedly contributes to the training and re-training of staff and trainers in the areas related to arboriculture and viticulture.
• The National Institute of Agronomical Research of Algeria (INRAA) lists economics and sociology of agricultural and rural world among its several activities.
• The High Commissariat to the Steppe Development (HCDS) has supposedly developed participatory approaches including gender issues in collaboration with local communities, including the nomadic herders.
• The Commissariat to the Agricultural Development of Saharan Regions (CDARS) claims to cover the extension of Oasis by the creation of peri-urban small family farms (136 stores).
• The National Administration of Scientific Research (NASR), according to a 2010 report, intended to strengthen innovation and development of knowledge through the establishment of three regional centers of technology transfer. No information is available on the progress.

National Center for Agricultural Technologies at University
According to a news item dated 22 March 2009, a new National Center for Agricultural Technologies (CNTA) was going to be established at the University of Abdurrahman Mira in Bejaia. The aim of the new institute is to boost the area’s agribusiness through partnership with local companies. The CNTA is also expected to play an important role in technical innovation and technology transfer. No recent information was found on the status of CNTA.  

Non-Public Institutions

Private sector

The agricultural extension system in Algeria is basically public. Presently, there is no evidence of any private companies engaged in the provision of extension or advisory services to the farmers on regular basis. There has been a recent (2013) development as the chairman of SGP-Proda, a holding company for animal production, said that 16 pilot farms focused on grains, vegetables, fruit trees and cattle breeding would be on offer via tender to both Algerian and foreign private investors. In the past, the agriculture sector was largely closed to foreign investment. This development might bring the private sector into extension advisory area, but it will require substantial time to materialize. The presence of an Engineering Consultancy Bureau, set up by young people holding diplomas in agricultural or veterinary sciences, was reported in a 2004 country paper on extension. No recent information is available on its status.

Non-governmental organizations

There are a significant number of NGOs in Algeria, involved in a variety of activities. They usually work under the umbrella of donor-funded or nationally funded projects, but could have their own financial sources. The names, addresses and telephone numbers of a few national NGOs that include one or more technical areas of agriculture, environment, sustainable community development, training, poverty eradication, and cooperatives in the list of their operations, are given below:

• Lala Nfissa Association for the Awareness and Advancement of the Rural Women (Association lala nfissa pour la sensibilisation et la promotion de la femme rurale), 103, Avenue Mustapha Ben Boulaid, B.P. 3202, Bilda (Tel: 213 3 418 032/412 114)
• National Association of Rural Advancement (Association nationale de promotion rurale), Cite du 08 mai 1945, bt. 38 No. 47, Sorecal, Bab Ezzouar (Tel: 213 2 519 781)
• National Association of Volunteer Touiza (Association nationale de volontariat Touiza), 20, rue Boujemaa Saadi, El Mouradia, Alger (Tel: 213 2 69 87 90)
• Women’s National Association for Rural Development (Association nationale femme et Développement rural), c/o Chambre National de l’Agriculture, Alger (Tel: 213 2 210 039/745 200)
• Algerian National Committee of NGOs in the Fight Against Desertification (Comite national d’ong algeriennes pour la desertification), Secretariat Executif CNOA, s/c AREA-ED, 30, chemin Mokrane Aoues, El Mouradia (Tel: 213 2 698 580)
• Algerian Ecological Movement (Mouvement ecologique algerien), 17 Rue Shakespeare, Alger (Tel: 213 2 26 04 65)

Farmers-based associations, cooperatives and societies

Chambers of Agriculture: The most important farmers-based association in Algeria is the National and Provincial Chambers of Agriculture, mentioned in a previous section, which are expected to eventually take over the responsibility of extension from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The process of the transfer of the extension responsibility is seemingly quite slow as it has been going on for several years. Still, the Chambers are involved in various extension activities.

National Union of Algerian Farmers (Union Nationale des Paysans Algeriens--UNPA): The UNPA has a turbulent history. It was formed in 1973 and was immediately incorporated by the National Liberation Front, a major political party, as one of the six national mass organizations. The UNPA membership comprised the farmers who either had a little or no portion of non-collectivized lands. Many of the UNPA’s ostensible functions had already been taken by the Ministry of Agriculture, and after 1988, some sectors broke away from UNPA to form separate unions. The UNPA earlier supported land privatization, but later reversed this policy. As of 2004, UNPA was supporting the leasing and concessions of state lands, but not new forms of ownership.

In 1945, when Algeria was still a French colony, there were 365 agricultural cooperatives and 204 rural credit cooperatives. They were involved in the production of cereals, citrus fruits, cotton, olive oil, tobacco and wine; in the operations of distilleries and dairies; and in the supply of agricultural machinery and the provision of agricultural credit. After gaining independence in 1962, Algeria broke up large Algerian-owned farms in 1971 and started re-organizing them into cooperatives. By 1973, as many as 1,348 cooperatives had been formed, and by 1980, the number of cooperatives swelled to 6,000. In the early 1980s, however, the government split large cooperatives into smaller units to improve efficiency. In 1987, a further break-up of large state-owned farms into private cooperatives was done. Long-term leases of land to cooperatives were initiated, and the farmers were given decision making powers in the matters of production and investment. The UNPA, which was just formed, played a leading role in the land reform program. However, by 1995, most of the cooperatives had been dispersed due to internal disputes, and the land was divided into individual plots. There is no information available on the current status and specific agricultural extension activities of agricultural cooperatives in the country.

List of Extension Providers

 The following list shows an excerpt from the GFRAS Directory of Extension Providers for Algeria. Some of these entries may be specially marked for having more detailed information in the database of the Worldwide Extension Study WWES.

Training

Training options for extension professionals

The Sub-Directorate of Training of the Directorate of Research, Extension and Training, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, is responsible for pre-service and in-service training of the extension staff.  Pre-service education in agricultural sciences, including agricultural extension, may be pursued at any of several universities in Algeria that have faculties of agriculture. Five such universities that offer degree programs in agriculture are:

• Université Amar Telidji de Laghouat, located at Laghouat.
• Université de Mostaganem, located at Mostaganem.
• Université du 20 Aout 55 de Skikda, located at Skikda.
• Université Mouloud Mammeri de Tizi Ouzou, located at Tizi Ouzou.
• Université Hassiba Benbouali de Chlef, located at Chlef.

Presently, four-month long pre-service training is given to the freshly recruited extension staff at the following four institutes before they join their posts:

• Agricultural Extension Institute, located in Algiers that covers the central region.
• Agricultural Extension Institute, located in Setif that covers the eastern region.
• Agricultural Extension Institute, located at Ain Temouchent that covers the western region.
• Agricultural Extension Institute, located at Sidi Mahdi that covers the southern region.

Arrangements for in-service training of the extension staff may be made at any of the five universities and the four Agricultural Extension Institutes mentioned above.  In addition, both pre-service education and in-service training may be received at the following institutions:

• National Superior School of Veterinary (Ecole Nationale Superieure Veterinaire).
• National Superior School of Agronomy (Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique).
• CFPA-96 Centers that provide diploma courses (CAP) in the disciplines of agriculture, horticulture, arboriculture, apiculture, nursery, and livestock.
• INSFP 14 institutes that provide diploma courses (Technician Certificate and Senior Technician Certificate) in the disciplines of agriculture, horticulture, arboriculture, field crops, vegetable, and livestock.

ICT

Info-mediaries and information and communication technology (ict) for agriculture and extension

The Ministry of Post, Information Technology and Communication is responsible for all matters pertaining to ICT development. According to the World Bank, in 2011, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions (per 100 people) in Algeria was 98.98. During the same year, the number of Internet users (per 100 people) in the country was 14.

Although Algeria has a well developed ICT sector, it lacks an ICT policy. The government launched an initiative called ASI to motivate university graduates and entrepreneurs to come up with innovative ideas to popularize ICT use in the country. A committee has also been formed for the purpose of defining the elements of an ICT strategy for making Algeria a national information society. So far, the emphasis seems to be mainly on the education sector.

All provincial agricultural directorates are connected through an Intranet network maintained by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The staff of some directorates also use Internet. Other than that, only radio and television are being used in support of extension programs. The Overseas Agronomic Institute of Italy has been assisting the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the training on GIS (Geographic Information System) for the agriculture sector as a part of the Integrated Management System of Agricultural and Rural Information.

Resources

Resources and references

Assabah, A. and H. Badi. 2001. Focus on Seed Programs: The Algerian Seed Industry. Aleppo, Syria: WANA Seed Network Secretariat, Seed Unit, ICARDA.

Bedrani, S., A. Abidar, and A. Laytimi. 2005. National Agriculture Policy- Algeria. The EU MEDFROL Project.

Benbelkacem, A. 2008. Report on Plant Breeding and Related Biotechnology Capacity: Algeria. Global Crop Diversity Trust, and GIPB.

Bernaoui, R., M. Hassoun, and R. Issolah. 2013. Analysis of needs of researchers in agronomy: implementation of agricultural information system in Algeria. IFLA WLIC 2013, Singapore.

INRAA.2010. D1.3 Country Report; Overview of the Research System and Research Programs on Mediterranean Agriculture: Algeria. ARIMNET ERANET Coordination Action.

Khiati, M. 2006. Algerian Agricultural System. Country Paper presented at the FAO Regional Workshop on Reform of National Agricultural Extension Systems, held at Hammamet, Tunisia; 18-21 September, 2006.

Khiati, M. and A. Lakhdar. 2004. Extension within the Framework of Land Reform: Algeria Country Report. Country Paper presented at the FAO Sub-Regional Workshop on Application of ICT for Enhancement of Extension Linkages, Coordination and Services, held at Hammamet, Tunisia, 22-24 November, 2004. In Proceedings of the Workshop, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for the Near East, Cairo in 2005.

Laoubi, K., M. Melkhir, and M. Yamao. 2010. Citrus farming in Algeria: Farmers’ behavior towards research and extension agenda. African Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. 5 (15), Pp. 1993-2001, 4 August, 2010.

Laoubi, K. and M. Yamao. 2012. The challenge of agriculture in Algeria: Are policies effective? [Journal of] Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Japan [actual title in Japanese], 2012.3; Pp. 65-73.

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