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Saharan pioneer front in Algeria: does the concept of resilience make sense in a context of rapidly expanding profitable agriculture?

Daoudi A., Lejars C.. 2014. In : Resilience and development: mobilising for transformation. Villeurbanne : Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe, p. 466-466. Resilience Alliance 2014, 2014-05-04/2014-05-08, Montpellier (France).

In Sahara, intensive groundwater use has allowed the development of new agrarian dynamics. In Algeria, through traditional oases were in difficulty, some Saharan wilaya became the hope of agriculture. During the 1980's, in these regions, the government launched pilot projects in intensive agriculture, especially in cereals, following the California and Saudi model (Cote, 2002). Private investments were also encouraged through a law facilitating access to land ownership (the law of the APFA 1983). New agrarian dynamics such vegetables crops under greenhouses started to appear. In the 1990's, despite the failure of large cereal farms model, the government has continued to make significant investments for the development of different Saharan wilaya (agricultural and rural electrification, opening roads and farm tracks, drilling programs, etc..). In the early 2000s, the dynamics of these territories were consolidated by the national plan for rural development (NADP) (Hartani et al. 2011). Biskra is one of the wilaya where neo-Saharan agriculture has known a remarkable development. Vegetable crops under greenhouse combined with traditional palm trees have developed and expanded rapidly on new land. Through experts have predicted a rapid decline of this Saharan agriculture, the high profitability of plasticulture still allow not only diversification of crops systems but also expansion of palm trees (Amichi, 2012). This pioneer front remains a pole of attraction for private investors and Algerian farmers. In this study, led in the municipality of El Ghrouss (wilaya of Biskra), we discuss and analyze how this socio-ecological system (SES) adapt to both internal and external perturbations. We show that the robustness of this SES, ie "the capacity of the system to maintain performance when subjected to internal and external perturbations" (Janssen and Anderies, 2007), is largely made possible by complex relationships between actors, both at farms and collective level. At farm

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