The heavy rain, hail and rising water levels in mainstreams and rivers have also affected the agricultural sector which is undergoing soil degradation, driving production down.
The agricultural sector in Tunisia
Agriculture ranks high in the Tunisian economy, contributing up to 10% in GDP and employing 14% of the labor force. The sector also contributes to the commercial balance, accounting for 10% of exports.
The agricultural activity is conducted over 10 million hectares throughout 516 000 farmlands. The income for a large part of the population depends on agriculture and the use of natural resources. The sector, highly important, is evolving in a fragile natural environment, with a highly sensitive dependence on weather conditions.
Furthermore, experts forecasts for the upcoming years are not upbeat, with several regions, especially in the Center and in the South, expected to sustain weather conditions most unfavorable to agriculture: temperature variations, heavier rainfall, frequent droughts…
Some experts are even more downbeat, predicting that under the effect of extreme phenomena, some activities are likely to vanish in the future.
The agricultural Tunisian sector suffers some constraints among which:
- farmland severances: 50% of farmlands are below five hectares in size, belonging to small farmers who sustain important losses in recurrent fashion,
- limited natural resources: hardly arable lands, severe erosion,
- poor average rainfall: irregular rain in space and time,
- increasing frequency and severity of extreme phenomena such as droughts and floods: hail and torrential rain are the most dreaded phenomena by farmers,
- rising temperatures by 2.1 C° and decrease in rain by -10 to -30% by 2050,
- increasing severity of extreme phenomena with gradual decrease of arable lands.
Read also | Agricultural insurance in Tunisia [4]
Tunisia: Impact of natural disasters on agricultural risks
Natural disasters [5] have caused 172.3 million USD in losses for the Tunisian agricultural sector during the 2011-2016 period. The 2017/2018 season, alone, reported 82 million TND (33 million USD) in damage, with the State covering only 6% of the total losses, that is 4.9 million TND (1.9 million USD). The remainder is borne by farmers.
Most widespread risks are droughts, floods, windstorms, hail, snow, frost, forest fires, diseases, insects and faunal pests.
Breakdown of damages per type of agricultural risks: 2011-2016
Floods remain the most frequent risk, with tremendous impact on both production and infrastructures.
Tunisia: Main floods from 1973 to 2018
| Period | Region | Number of deaths | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| March1973 | North of the country, particularly the Medjerda river basin | 100 | Important material damage |
| March 1979 | Medenine, South of the country | - | 7600 sheep heads lost and 1400 km of agricultural tracks damaged |
| January1990 | Sidi Bouzid, Gafsa, Kairouan, Jeffara | 60 | 7800 livestock heads lost and 50 000 hectares damaged |
| January-February 2003 | North of the country and Grand Tunis | - | Crops damaged at 85% |
| September 2011 | North of the country, Zaghouan, lower valley of the Medjerda | - | 3000 hectares of damaged farmland |
| September 2018 | Nabeul, Cap Bon and Kasserine | 5 | 1791 affected farmers |
NA: Non available
The September 2018 floods that washed Nabeul had serious consequences on agriculture, with 864 hectares of vegetables and 1000 hectares of fruit trees damaged. More than 200 000 poultry and 500 heads of cattle had also been lost. Agricultural loss is estimated at 250 million TND (102 million USD).
Read also | The forthcoming establishment of a fund to prevent natural catastrophes in Tunisia [6]