Socialized Farm in North Africa

Abstract

After the World War II, many colonial countries established their independence. One of the problems inherited by these newly independent countries in the aspect of agriculture was in what form to manage the lands they had taken over from European colonists.Algeria was colonialized by France in 1830. The lands favourable for agriculture were transformed into farms, where European colonists grew exportable products, such as grapes for wine, oranges, vegetables, wheat, etc., with the aid of French Government. Algerians were employed as labour force in these farms.Soon after the independence in 1962, the Government of Algeria nationalized all the colonial farms (2, 700, 000ha.), and transformed them into a kind of collective farm called “Self-managed Farm” (“L'autogestion” or “L'exploitation agricole autogérée”). The self-managed farm was the one institutionalized after Algerian farm labourers had spontaneously organized joint management of the farms abandoned by European colonists during the confusion caused by the War of Independence. The Government sets a director for each farm to supervise its management.Bouchaoui Amar Farm is one of the self-managed farms located 10km in the south-west of Alger, with 1, 293 hectars of land in total. This farm, which had previously been owned by a French colonist, became a self-managed farm after independence and has an organization as shown in fig. 3. The membership of the farm is 467; the main products are grapes (561ha.), oranges (126ha.) and vegetables (105ha.)-as of Sept., 1967. All the products of this farm are to be bought by the Government. The profit is divided between the farm and the Government (3:7).The problems this farm faces now are as follows:1. Low level of techniques.2. Strong pressure of Government control at the cost of autonomy and initiative on the side of labourers.3. Qualitative change of the member's becoming more like a salaried man.4. Necessity for shifting from exported products like grapes to those for the domestic market like suger cane or wheat.Tunisia bacame French Protectrate in 1883. Since then Frenchmen and Italians had immigrated and occupied the land favourable for agriculture, where they grew grapes, oranges, olives, wheat, etc.. Just before the independence, the land thus occupied by European colonists amounted to 860, 000ha. (3, 800, 000ha. for the whole cultivated area in Tunisia).After the independence Tunisian Government nationalized all the land owned by foreigners and placed it under Government control.Since 1962 the Government has started setting up the cooperative farm, integrating nationalized farms and surrounding small ones owned by Tunisian farmers, with the aim of encouraging their initiative to increase production. These cooperative farms were composed of the farmers who participated with their own land and the landless labourers who had been employed on colonial farms. The farm labourers have their own autonomous organization to take charge of the management of the farm under the supervision of a director appointed by the Government. The number of the cooperative farms was 303, covering 310, 000ha. (as of 1966).The Methline Farm is a cooperative farm situated 70km north of Tunis. Of the total area of 1, 406ha., the land by the Government is 758ha. and small private farms offered by Tunisian farmers amount to 647ha.. There are 181 labourers on the farm, of whom 29 are former employees of colonial farms, 95 are independent farmers who offered their own land, and 57 landless peasants who participated by the permission of the regional Government. The main products are wheat, grapes, vegetables, olives, and grains, beans and pasturages for feed. The farm keeps 261 cows and 195 sheep as well. All these products are to be bought by the Government.The problems of the farm are as follows:1. Strong pressure of Government control.