Historical Review and Future Opportunities for Wider Scaling of Conservation Agriculture in Tunisia

Published Date
January 26, 2022
Type
Book Chapter
Historical Review and Future Opportunities for Wider Scaling of Conservation Agriculture in Tunisia
Authors:
Hatem Cheikh M'hamed
Haithem Bahri, Mohamed Annabi, Aymen Frija, Zied Idoudi

In Tunisia, rainfed agriculture is facing the major challenges of low and irregular rainfall, as well as natural resources degradation. These are further accentuated by climate change. Changes in technical and management paradigms are needed to boost agricultural productivity. Since the early 1990s in Tunisia, a Conservation Agriculture (CA) system has been proposed as an adapted set of management principles to ensure more efficient and resilient agricultural production systems. In the last 20 years several research and development (R&D) projects have been implemented. Research findings in Tunisia show that the long-term adoption of CA allows increased crop yields and water use efficiency of cereals, enhanced soil biological life and soil organic carbon and reduced energy costs at farm level. Despite promising research results, adoption and up-scaling of CA in Tunisia has been rather modest (currently some 16,000 ha are managed under CA systems). The purpose of this book chapter is to summarize the previous R&D projects dealing with CA in Tunisia. It also aims to provide better insights into the complexity and potential ongoing solutions for integrating crops and livestock into CA systems. Crop–livestock systems dominate a large part of northern and central Tunisia where most of the rainfed field crops are produced.

Citation:
Hatem Cheikh M'hamed, Haithem Bahri, Mohamed Annabi, Aymen Frija, Zied Idoudi. (26/1/2022). Historical Review and Future Opportunities for Wider Scaling of Conservation Agriculture in Tunisia, in "Conservation Agriculture In Africa: Climate Smart Agricultural Development". United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: CABI.
Keywords:
adoption
climate adaptation and mitigation
environmental health and biodiversity
nutrition, health and food security
poverty reduction, livelihoods and jobs
gender equality, youth and social inclusion
r&d projects
no tillage
gender equality
goal 1 no poverty
crop–livestock integration
goal 2 zero hunger
goal 13 climate action
goal 17 partnerships for the goals
goal 15 life on land
goal 12 responsible production and consumption
Goal 8 Decent work and economic growth
Goal 6 Clean water and sanitation
goal 4 quality education
goal 10 reduced inequalities