Agricultural development strategies in a small economy: the case of Tunisia Dahl R.P. Le développement Paris : CIHEAM Options Méditerranéennes; n. 11 1972

Agricultural development strategies in a small economy: the case of Tunisia

Dahl R.P.

Le développement Paris : CIHEAM

Options Méditerranéennes; n. 11 1972

pages 105-112

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Reynold DAHL of

and Applied Economics of

development

l

^{I L ‘ I}

i

! i

l has

ased emphasis on devdop-

I

^{ment and its} to economic

in ,developing

velopment economist have to 1 this as a shift away a n

e fundamentalism to an em-

~

!

^{phasis in}

: tion de-

, (1). fact, we may

be witnessing today a shift e

i

fundamentdism )> as evidenced by a study which points out that

f.ew nations achieve high capita achieving subs-

~!

tantial gains in ty )> (2).

(W.). -

and

University of Staff Paper January 1971.

ment of Agricultural and Applied Economics,

(2) of Agriculture in

Se.rvice, U: S. of Agriculture, veloping Nations,

1970.

relgn Agrlcultural Economic N” 59,

This could be the case of Tunisia, a that is poo~ly endowed with all except Even in the case of the the quality has been low because of li- mited levels of education and

of the population.

quality of its most abundant

human capital, public of

education has been the

of the of Tunisia

total economic development.

Whi,le much of Tunisia’s

to endowed with

C climate,

has high in Tunisia’s develop- ment plans because much of its limited

in this

Tunisia’s attempts to achieve econo- mic development have met with some

1960 and 1968,

in

at a compound of 4,2

cent. capita was

$ 187 in 1968, although in the

it is of Tu-

to the such as phos-

aad at a pid because of Tunisia’s location on the

Economic in the total econo- my would havJe at a fastm

had the

of the economy, been able to con- to that As shown in

Table and food

accounted of

1961. Value added by the

a high of 131 million di- 1965 but declined to 88 million in 1967. the

and food

ted only 20 total

of the

TABLE

Gross Domestic Product at Factor Cost from Agriculture, Agricultural and Food Industries, and Total, a t 1966 Prices, 1960-68

(million dinars)

Year

1 9 6 0 . 1961

.

1 9 6 2 . 1963

.

1 9 6 4 . 1 9 6 5 . 1 9 6 6 . 1 9 6 7 . 1 9 6 8 .

Agriculture

Agricultural and Food Industries

I-

85 92 89 95 99 102 7 4 63 76

23 31 27 26 27 28 26 24 27

Total Agriculture

and Food Industries

95 123 1 1 6 1 2 2 126 131 1

88 1 0 4

Percent and Food Industries Total GDP

Total

Agriculture

337 368

28,l

22,2 470

20,3

434 23,4

429 29,7

441

20,3

41 8 ^30,7

396

30,5

381 33,6

1 1 I

I

;ource : d’hat au Plan et de Déve.

loppement konomique et Social, 1969-1 972, Annexe Statistique.

Options Méditerranéennes

-

¹¹

-

^{Février 1972}

%of 1957-59 ‘Average 1301

60 .Year

1959 1960 1961 ,1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968

: Agricultural 1959-1968, U.S. of

265.

(1957-59 =

1.

-

Total and and

due in no to

.this pe- be little doubt that cli-

mate is a limiting 40

in Tunisia. is

mely both within and between in substantial livestock output to

in Tunisia to popula-

tion changes shown 1.

totd and ¹⁹

pdation 1957-59

is the base only of : See Tables and 2.

in total food

,

ar

o$ the decade did total -f,ood

While difficult to

above .that in the base 2.

-

and

and Tunisia, 1957-1968.

aelineate when

so much to one cannot

this that Tunisian shown a

decade.

the in 1968 was 26 cent

.than in the base 1957-59.

As ã capita

in Tunisia has fallen.

capita in 1968 was only 68 of its bvel in 1957-59.

The of domestic food

in Tunisia coupled with a steady in population is

ted in of food and

shown in Figu- 2,

18,3 million in 1957 to an all-time high of 43,7 million in 1967.

While Tunisia’s ha-

106

ve substantially to

they have as have im-

The total vdue o5 was 32 million about the same as in 1957.

Since not in-

to offset the of

food and

balance of in the has shifted a posi- tive balance in the 1957-66 to a negative balance in 1967 and 1969.

Tunisia, like developing

is

of of

a deficit in balance of pay- ments. has been disappointing to Tu-

nisian economic

has not been able to con- to the solution of the payments

As shown in Table com-

the of Tunisia’s

is also evident

the table imports

in .accounted a sub-

stantial of the in total

food of ce-

of which is wheat, accounted half of the total food im- shown in the table.

Since loom so in Tuni- sia’s .total food it i8 evident

substantially duced if

The Go- of Tunisia this and

to odtput

Wough

that was adopted in 1967. Although the best substituting domestic food

additional

substitution in milk A small domestic developed in the beets have in

Tunisia’s plans.

is Tu-

nisia domestically as

cheaply as this commodity can be chased in

Although not included among the

of in

Table sizeable

quantities af soybean oil. These im- have enabled Tunisia to

its aonsumlption of vegetable oils du- a

of olive oil has been at low levels, and its total consumption of vegetable oils

by 15 this same

As shown in Table olive oil is Tu- nisia’s most

Tunisia often has second only

to Spain in o i l

declined sli-

ghtly to 1969. A

cline in olive oil would have oc- concessional soybean oil domesti- olive oil consumption.

the p a ~ of the decade 1957-1969, of wine

as than those of olive

oil. Wine fell off

1964 when Tunisia lost its To date it has not been able to find

wine to place the lost sales.

of vegeta-

bles have slightly

past decade, but ,these have been offset by declines

and wine

-

¹¹

-

^{Février 1972}

TABLE II

Imports Principal Food Products, Tunisia (millions dinars)

Coffee and Tea Dairy

Products Sugar Others Total

Year Cereals

I

4,9 4,4 3,4 397 17,O 13,2 3,5 2,8 ,2,4*

3,6 2,8 3,6 4,3

16,l 12.3 12,5 15,2 23,8 20,9 15,5 17.1 17,9 19,5 29,4 22,4 . 27,3 1 9 5 7

. .

1 9 6 2

. .

^1,3

1961

. .

^5,l

1 9 6 0

. .

^2,3

1959

. .

^1,6

1958

. .

^3,5

13,4 1969

. .

^11,4

1968

. .

^17,4*

1967

. .

^8,3

1966

. .

^8,6

1965

. .

^2,8

1 9 6 4

. .

^5,

1963 ^,

.

^{1 , l}

* Estimated

Source : Évolution du Commerce Extérieur de Tunisie, 1956 à 1965. République Tunisienne, Secretariat d’kat au Plan et à l’Economie Nationale, Service des Statistiques du Commerce, Mars 1966.

RAPPORT ANNUEL, 1968, 1969, Banque Centrale de Tunisie.

TABLE 111

Exports Principal Food Products, Tunisia, (million dinars)

Canned Fruits nd Vege-

tables Live

Animals

Vege- tables

Fruits md Nuts

Olive

Year Fish Citrus oil Wine Cereals Other Total

1957.

. .

1958.

. .

1959.

. .

1960.

. .

1961.

. .

1962.

. .

1963.

. .

1964.

. .

1965.

. .

1966.

. .

1967.

. .

1968.

. .

1969.

. .

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

1,l 8 8

7,9 9,2 14,4

5,8 9,6 12,8 9,9 11,9 13,5 13,4 8, 11,9 10,o

7,6 . 12,9 7,4 793 7,9 7,6 10,o

8,6 2,6 5, 5,O 2,9

3,

o

27,7 3 6,7 35.3 27,6 25,7 29,8 31,4 33,6 26,4 33,3 25,3 25,l 25,O

* Included with canned fruits and vegetables and other exports.

Source : Évolution du Commerce Extérieur de Tunisie, 1956 à 1965, République Tunisienne, Secrétariat d’ttat au Plan et à l’Economie Nationale, Service des Statistiques du Commerce, Mars 1966.

RAPPORT ANNUEL, 1968, 1969, Banque Centrale Tunisie.

in Tunisia’s economic development

plans. The Tuni-

sia’s development was

established in the

nales the 1962-1972. Wi- thin

Triennal (1962-64) and two .driennaux (1965-68) and (1969-72)

designed and implemented.

Objectives

of

lopment

The objectives of

oufilined in the 1962-72 and

have the same

the ,detailed plans that followed.

To achieve ,these development objectives, the have emphasized

pal policies development : 1) and intensifica-

tion, 2) (shifts in sys-

tems of land and 3) ment of

The of this will be

devoted to a ,discussion of

development policies. The extent and means which they have

been implemented and as

107

Options Méditerranéennes

-

^{l 1}

-

Février 1972

by changes will

be planning, and

changes in the will be analyzed in since this is the

of the Tunisian

economy. used in the analysis have been obtained in

official Tunisian as the

Annuaire Statistique de la Tunisie ( 3 ) .

AGRICULTURAL DlVERSlFlCATlON AND INTENSIFICATION Tunisian has been heavily dependent upon

As shown in Table

of the cultivated land in Tunisia was de- voted to in 1960.

of in the substantial of the

is

located, was even Tu-

nisia as a whole. fact, the

of could almost have been classified as because of the

of Studies have

shown that the

tion of was by

onoly one type of by all types of : and small, mo-

Tunisian and fo-

The 1962-

1971) empasized of

to the dependence

on :

1. the ,land devo-

$d to and lands with ⁽⁽

specific uses to be

shifted

2. to be changed

to yield the land.

wo1.1113 intensively,

soil The-

se to in

duction sufficient domestic consump- tion.

TWO new

in a ceive more than 400 mm of

the

tion was as follows :

: wheat,

: wheat of

: legu-

ma- lem than an ave-

of 400 mm of the

was as follows :

: wheat,

of statistics is open to ques- (3) As is ^of many developing coun- tlon and may be subject to a wide of

must be ted with. Caution.

108

of Agricultural in Tunisiain 1960 and Planned Changes to 1971

Use

. . . . . .

Legumes

. . .

Vegetable

. . . . . . . . .

Total Cultivated

. . .

Non-Cultivated Land

. . . . . .

Alpha

. . . . . .

Land

. . .

1 9 6 0

:l ha)

2 5 75 26 49 995 3 1 5 0 1 300 50 3 600 900 9

Cent

63,5

o,

¹

2,4 O, 8 1,6 31,6 100,o

1971

l 600 1 5 21

o

50 280 1 428 3 583 742 175 3 400 1 1 0 0 9

Cent

44,7 4 5,9 1,4 7,8 39,8 100,o

: Perspectives Tunisiennes, d'gtat et à

1962 p. 154.

Second :

: fallow-legumes.

of the land was to be fallowed in the

tion.

is significant to note, that little is available in Tunisia

on ,the costs and ope-

new with

livestock as oats-vetch,

Area(1000 ha) 1 2 0 0 ~

biennial and

on weed fal-

low. management in-

volving the budgeting of, types of given point in time and time is needed.

Since and

intensification to be i,mplemented

the a

detailed examination of this

tant of Tunisian is

1100 1000

-

800

-

900

- -

700 600 -

-

500

-

400

-

Durum

Bread Wheat

- - - - -

Barley

...

. . . .

. .

m . .

. . . . . . . . _..

. *

1 I 1 I , 0 I 1 I I , I I I , i l l l l l i t *

1948 '1950 1955 1960 1965 Yea r

Tunisia, 3 .

-

^{Area of} Three Cereal Grains : Bread Wheat, and Barley in

Options

-

¹¹

-

duced in wheat, wheat, and

The devoted to

declined a high of 1 981 !housand in 1954-1958 to 1 296 thousand in 1964-1968. This indicates that Tu-

nisia in imple-

menting its policy of

sification in the

by some of ce-

land into as

cots, almonds, and olives as well as into As shown in Fi- 3, most of .the of and badey sipce

constant the but the expansion of

been accomplished Tunisia's hopes of

on ,a

intensification of and the ap- plication of technology ming have not

shows that yields of all have

to and have not exhibited a fact, wheat yields ha-

ve a decline since the

1950's.

planted to

wheat has ,expanded 450

to 12 O00

in 1968/69, 53 O00 in 1969/70 100 O00 in 1970/

1. The yields of the new have than the indigenous Tunisian such as

in each of the above to annual of ;the

ject, but a of

yield is not

of Consequently, they best suited to ,the

fall is and less both bet- ween and within This has

and the new have been planted mainly on the

and :the

mechanized the

easily applied.

The data in Table V also indicate that in

tinue to heavily on

five of was planted

to wheat,

als

of the land was in fallow which is usual-

ly of a with and,

consequently should in

usage. When fallowed land is added to land in 78 cent of the total land of these

to

tion.. is also of to note that only 3,6 and 3,8 cent of the land was devoted to

This would indi-

cate, as as the is con-

Durum

Bread Wheat

- - - -

Barley

. . . . . .

.80

-

.70

-

.60 - .50 - .40 -

-

.20 - .l01

..

"1946 ' '1950 ' ' 1955 ' ^t ' 1960. ' v ' 1965 ' ' u 1968 ' - y ea r

4.

-

^Yield of Three Cereals : Bread Wheat, and Barley Twisiu,

Tunisia, that

little in

tions which would

cation in shift in em-

phasis on

usage in the public such as that discussed above ,the

not indications

that such data would show some decline in land used

As

as a whole show a decline in to

since 1960.

Wh,ile Tunisia's development @ans ha-

TABLE V

Agricultural Use in 1968 on

Private Farms in Northern Tunisia

Use /Hectares

1

^{Cent Per}

D u r u m W h e a t

. .

Irrigated

Natural Pastures

.

³¹

D r y Plantations.

.

Grain Legumes

.

^{1 4}

Forage Crops

. .

Fallow

. . .

O t h e r Cereals

. .

Bread W h e a t .

. .

Vegetables Irrigated

Plantations

Total

. . . . .

⁴⁰⁰ 100,O Source : Crédits pour l'Intensification de la

Grande Culture privée du Nord Ministere de l'Agriculture, Bureau du

( I r e Tranche) République Tunisienne, Plan et du Développement Agricole.

ve emphasized the shifting of some

als land into uses, will

to be in Tunisia

the bulk of Tunisian

wllimmain land Of

the 3,2 muion

of cultivatable land in only

about 100 O00 now

ted.

limited.

also limited.

gest of

the un-

the low incomes of most of the po- pulation, will continue to occupy

an in the diets of the

than one-half the ave-

diet and account about

the total expen-

on food. The income elasticity of demand in Tunisia is esti- mated to be OY35 which means that if we

assume capita will

3 con-

capita can be expected to about 1 cent. Adding this to the

of 2,s cent, in

total domestic demand of

3,s

been applied on- ly to wheat.

in of both quality and and using

heavily on them.

is too to develop comple- and

Such be simul-

li-

vestock feeding, of the

genetic potentials of indigenous catfle.

109

Options Méditerranéennes

-

^{I l}

-

Février 1972

STRUCTURAL REFORM

!

The of Tunisian

was to

changes in systems of land te- fiam oFganization.

tion to .become the

means oE a

smdl achieving

the benefits, of scale economies asso- ciated with

development policies

in the decade of the

1960's. The attempts to

induce n: n of the

shifts in systems

of and

climate of con-

fusion that with in-

an attempt will be made to outline some of the

pal that since in-

dependence. ^Q Les des of Tunisia's development

The legislation of the

new involved

and the public and

habous lands to the

bous was an ancient system of land te- in which title of land was not These lands

subsequently sold given to small

peasants individuals by

which, at that time, en- The until 1961 was also by the

gemeì$ of

assistance in the of which small individually owned

could in

to supplies

a policy of economic planning in which the emphasis was to shift social

blems in the to

sing which pos-

sessed

Subsequently, a distinction was to be made between

tional in and less on

between and

The shift in emphasis to the

of was undoubtedly in-

fluenced of the

lands of colon

independence to one-

half of these lands, which totaled

850 O00 in

some by the by 1961. The

nationalized in 1964 (4).

The chosen means of sification :an intensification of

to output was a

of

effective Janua-

cultural Cooperation in ⁽⁴⁾

(M.

and Tunisia, (Unpublished S.), Agri- 1968.

110

1962, which was to implement the objectives set in the

Units

sai,d to be, 1)

of new SYS-

tems and new techniques, 2) the tion of to take advantage of economics of scale, and 3) Saci- lity achieving a savings le- vel.

The new to be

med only a

of been completed and fu- consulted. Small

the of

posed t o have the op-

tion exchan-

ging land a plot outside the could sell land

join. The basic was that

of in-

to that the indivi-

dual of a holding disap- as it becomes of an ove- cultivation plan.

and Lewis mation of new

in 1964 when

the colon-owned

nationalized and the state found itself in the possession of an additional 460 O00 of land. This, with ved total holdings of some 700 O00 hec-

of the best

On 30, 1964, the Office des hed with its functions being to assume the management of all state lands ; to levels on these lands ; to cultivation ; to

tablish testing

stations ; and to an eight

the o€ the sta-

te lands, to coo-

was soon evident that the new coo-

ting that hoped

One of the that they

obligated to pea-

sants and could be sup- The could only 150 to 180 annually to

.and often times less. addition, the- of

such as : 1) Lack of

nel Often

mes the was .a high duate had even less tion with little

ce, on mechanized

2) A

system which deci-

sions final autho-

often in the of

in Tunis. This often in costly delays. 3) Lack of

of the in main-

taining machines that had come,

in colon-

owned fanns. Often times and because of an incapacity to make

of 4) Absence

of incentives of the

on the basis of wages. Consequently, the mem-

associate

with the output of the 5) and a lack of capital to implement

intensi4ied as

of the

was un-

daunted in its coo-

was felt

blems could be and enthusiasm among technicians wmaifned high.

has also been financial

assistance of the to the coo- to that enthusiasm (5).

A U. N. indicated that on

June 1968 the of land

in Tunisia was as follows (6) :

1) been extended to

1,5 million of which half (880,000

and the

Of the 880 O00 hecta-

the of the land

(665 O00 and 40 O00 the

of this was colon-owned land that had been combined

duction

peasant often of

quality.

2) About O00 Tunisian land-

with an of a

little each owned

an equivalent amount of land ,to duction

points out n: of these who leased away land, and who lived

less

often combined with incomes

activites

>>.

^{is of} to note that at the time of independence, 5 O00 Tu-

nisian ow-

ned 70

This indicates of

the had

expanded 350 O00

to 600 O00 tion of

tially since 1956.

3) addition to the 40 O00

of *and 3 O00

64 O00 peasants on an equal amount of land in of much quality.

4) A few and

the of

in the of

the had been made

to

cattle on the

owned lands.

5) Small and medium sized

June ⁽⁵⁾ 1, 1970.

<( Guilt Association ^)), Barrons,

(6)

-

Background Notes on

1969

-

1970,

5, 1970.

-

^il

-

Février 1972

Tunisie : Ceiltre d'irrigation de Sbiba.

Photo UNESCO, Schmidt.

Sahel, the 300 miles of coast to Gabes includi,ng the Sfax olive

mounted in pushing the as ef- to the small, inde- in the Sahel who ted. Opposition d s o came

in the and political ,allies who had a vested

in a e ^)> to

social change. Faced with these di@-

culties, Salah, of

and National Economy, a bill submission

in the Fall of 1969 which called coo- as being the .only way of culti- vating the soil. This

opposition influenti,al mem-

of adopted.

Subsequently, was a sweeping ad- in the

ment which was to be followed by an

change in e des

>>.

1969, the Tunisian passed a law which outlined

the commitment to

mote the coexistence of in and Subsequently,

against will given the option of lea-

ving land

as they had in the past. chose this option.

completely liquidated land indications are that those that sti,ll the

ones of the

in the

As has shown

that have initiated sweeping land

duction often declines and im- mediately such

ken. Unquestionably, the

and confusion associated with a Les

)> in Tunisia, have

been

the of Tunisian

the past decade.

OF

Since its independence 1956, TU- nisi.a has placed a heavy emphasis on

investment both

face and to expand the

amount of land.

The of investments

in total investment is illus-

by the 1969-1972.

this the p1,anned

total investment was 128 million Of this .amount, 48 mil-

lion 38 was to be de-

voted to in

The of investments

in to those in

can be gauged by the planned investment on the

cing units. The new

visualized an investment totalling 37,4 million

1969-1972. pointed

111

Options Méditerranéennes

-

¹¹

-

^{Février 1972}

out that by June 30,

units had been extended to 1,5 million of. which 665 O00

in the most

land of :the The amount

of land that would

new is

estimated at about 100 O00 Consequently, the

ded an investment of 48

on 100 and

37,4 million on 1,5 million hec- in

would indicate that while Tunisia’s develop-

ment of

tion and intensification was t o be imple- the installation

of on the

duction the

t o a small .amount of in- vestment funds to

jects which

A .analysis of

to investments in in

Tunisia has not been made.. The Uni-

of in T,unisia is

,making a study of d,evelopment in Tunisia to mine the technical, economic, and so- cial involved in the success fai-

of Until the

of this available, one

must on qualitative

mation in

sals. Such indicated that

to date the to investments in

Tunisia’s been di-

sappointing. The expansion in ted land was to facilitate

of high value and vegetable both do- mestic and

While many of Tunisia’s

and sufficient time has not lapsed to full

ductivity, Tunisi.a’s the

O f f i c e de en Valeur de la Vallée

de la been in

a decade. This on the

by .the

The two on

the that planned by

technicians by

late 1957.

and Lewis point out in excellent analysis of the development

of this and its that

.technicians had envi- saged

and wine cultivation intensive, high-yielding, la- vegetable,

and on newly

land in the Valley.

of the land in the

subdivided and dis-

to chosen 1,andless

judged to be the most capable. Subsequenbly, the

established in which

these to become

these to technical advice

both supplies and the commo- dities

112

in in

development with about

40 of

*investment going to

jects. These investments have been con-

a small but

to date have been

to and

studies available. Economic studies to analyze the potential

investments in

ces to investments in dry land would be valuable to

limited se- lative to the total land base.

is expensive ,and the quality of the is low because of a

high sdine content. avai-

lable technology, the ,bulk of Tunisian will

As the of Tunisia a new decade the tumuhous

1960’s, an question

ting it is how to divid-, its investments between

Jand Substantive

analysis .o€ the $ates of investments in

ces to investments in land essential.

Options

-

¹¹

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Février 1972