Typology of agricultural farms in the South-East of Algerian Sahara: the case of Zelfana oasis

Abstract

In Algerian Saharan, oases are characterized by the fragility of the ecosystem and degradation of microclimate, which covers most of the Algerian oasis, where the climate change is adversely affecting the society of the developing countries because their livelihoods rely mainly on climate-dependent activities, whether agricultural or economic. Zelfana is one of the thirteen oases that encompass the region of Ghardaia (Algerian Sahara); it is part of the territory of the Châamba. This oasis characterized for the past two decades by phoenicicole farms knows strong socio-economic and cultural mutations that have strongly influenced the agricultural sector for several decades. The main purpose of the paper aims to understand this diversity and define the characteristics of the farms, which rely on a structural typology for Treatment data by MAC - Multiple Correspondence Analysis under SPSS. After that, we determine the number of classes corresponding to the types of agricultural farms. Based on the most discriminating variables, we cleared the characteristics of each farm type. From this study, we determined the more discriminating variables include the professional identity of the farmer, the importance of farms, seniority, location, size of the farm, and the dominant culture. Clustering indicates five types of farms, namely: ancient irrigated farms (small gardens and Palm grove (CAPER)), the improved farms, small new farms, and at last the medium and large farms.