- Carthage was the granary of Rome. Tunis was once called Tunis the Green, for its dense forests and greenery.
- The gradual desertification from the south, combined with the consequences of global warming, make the task of new agricultural performance difficult.
- Since the country’s independence, Tunisian agriculture has not been considered as an economic sector but as a social sector.
- In Agriculture, Tunisia exports two thirds of what it imports.
- Agricultural policies never existed and we still follow the same pattern.
These are five of the many facts presented by our interlocutors in the Mediterranean Development Initiative Brussels| KLL ADVISORY roundtable on the topic of Tunisian agriculture.
For decades, the social policy of the state has never considered de facto producers and breeders as economic operators but as social instruments of a subsidy policy aimed at satisfying a maximum of consumers. As a result, farmers and breeders have always had a traditional approach to agriculture: they consume and waste a lot of water for their plantations, develop little accounting and work only on their cost policies rather than on their profit margin. Their welfare has never been considered.
The issue of water, precious in Tunisia, was also raised. A palm tree would consume 20 to 100 times more water than it should. Annual losses due to poor maintenance are also drastic. Faced with bottle rationing due to low annual rainfall, the state of drought being for 4 years, we must at all costs review our strategy and its governance.
Moreover, out of more than 230 varieties of olive trees and 200 varieties of pomegranate trees, only one of each, the Spanish variety, is planted. Investing in R&D is more than necessary for Tunisia!
Finally, our guest Yasser Bououd, CEO of EZZAYRA, a company that combines technology and agricultural performance, told us how important it is to reconcile modern technology, sustainable development, and agricultural and forestry performance in the future! A future without awareness of the consequences of global warming, sustainable development and the well-being of the producer would lead Tunisia down a very bad path!
We are grateful for the quality of the dialogue of the speakers present, the moderation and the presentation provided by Faten Kallel and the logistical support provided by Achref Kbaier.
We would like to thank our speakers at the second MDI Roundtable in Tunis, organised jointly with KLL Advisory. Many thanks to :
Faouzi Abderrahmane – Engineer, politician and former Minister of Employment and Professional Training.
Akissa Bahri – Agricultural engineer, former Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Hydraulic Resources.
Karim Daoud – Farmer & former President of SYNAGRI.
Leïth Ben Becher – Founder of SYNAGRI, Honorary President of APAD, Vice-President of the Arab Network for Food Sovereignty “ANFS”.
Yasser Bououd – CEO EZZAYRA.
Mahmoud Bouassida – Agricultural promoter.