Prospects for Saharan Agriculture

The book "Prospects for Saharan Agriculture", published following the international conference organized in Adrar in February 1986 by the URASC of the University of Oran under the direction of Nadir Marouf, constitutes a collective reflection on the future of agricultural development in the Algerian Sahara. The volume brings together researchers, agronomists, economists, and development specialists to study the potentials, limitations, and challenges of Saharan agriculture within a context shaped by Algeria's pursuit of food security and economic diversification. The central thesis of the book is that the Sahara should no longer be viewed as a marginal or unproductive space, but rather as a strategic region capable of contributing to national development through the optimization of water, land, and human resources. The authors thus examine the possibilities of expanding cultivated areas through deep drilling, modern irrigation, and the introduction of new agricultural techniques tailored to the arid climate. The work places significant emphasis on traditional oasis agricultural systems, particularly palm groves and ancestral irrigation techniques such as foggaras. The researchers demonstrate that these systems represent an essential ecological and social heritage, built upon collective water management and a historical adaptation to desert constraints. However, they also highlight the difficulties confronting these systems: the depletion of water resources, soil degradation, rural exodus, and competition from modern intensive agriculture.