The spread of the intensive agricultural model by agro-suppliers in Algeria: implications for citrus small family farms and their adaptations

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how small family farms, lacking direct support from advisory services, cope with challenges including access constraints to resources, and enhance their resilience. Investigations conducted in the wilaya of Blida, Algeria, through surveys of 17 input suppliers and citrus growers, revealed how the institutional context, particularly that of private agricultural 241 advisory, incentivizes farms to adopt hyper-intensive agriculture by using more agro-chemicals. Indeed, the arrival of input suppliers into the agricultural advisory landscape has resulted in socio-economic differentiation between farms, with small and most vulnerable farms resisting these intensive models. The results show that even if these small farms face difficulties in existing in the face of the big ones supported by the institutional environment, particularly the private sector, resilience factors have been identified that enable these farms to resist to the steamroller of the intensive model: solidarity between small family farms, pluriactivity, and taking advantage of some state support measures and the public-private partnership of farm advisory services.