Algeria is performing "very well" in the implementation of the Family Farming Program (FFP), "technically assisted" by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN body's representative, Nabil Assaf, said Wednesday.
Assaf, we met on the sidelines of a national seminar in Batna (435-km southeast of Algiers) about ways and methods to promote family farming in Algeria," organized at the national school of forests by the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Assaf said the event was held as part of the international year of family farming which is aimed at "shedding light on the importance of such farming for household economy" and "presenting some of the experiences carried out here in Algeria and abroad."
The participants at the seminar will discuss, over two days, methods to develop family farming to substantially contribute to world agricultural production and food security, the UN official said.
A total of 500 million agricultural enterprises, out of 570 million worldwide, are family-style ones.
Efforts are being made to work out a national strategy for the development of family farming and make available the required resources to support all those who adopt such projects, particularly youths, said Mohamed Khiati, an official at the Agriculture ministry.
The Agriculture ministry's official disclosed that about 10,000 local projects had been executed between 2010 and 2013 in Algeria.
The figure will be brought up to 12,000 by late 2014, he said, adding that such projects will be adapted, in the future, to the "notion of family farming."