Tunisia ‘sandy’ farms withstand drought, pattern

Farmers discontinuance to a seaside lagoon in northern Tunisia are combating to protect a particular, veteran irrigation system that has sparked renewed ardour as North Africa’s water shortages intensify.

Retired schoolteacher Ali Garci wanders amongst small sandy plots, inspecting his potatoes, lettuces and onions.

“It’s no longer land that we domesticate for the income it brings, however for the artwork and the pleasure,” says the 61-300 and sixty five days-used, who works around a hectare (2.5 acres) inherited from his family.

Local farmers indulge in veteran the “ramli” methodology for the explanation that 17th century, when Muslims and Jews settled in North Africa after fleeing the Catholic reconquest of Andalusia.

Some found security in Ghar El Melh, a small fishing metropolis in Tunisia’s north.

Nonetheless they’d to battle a lack of cultivated land and water.

They realized to recall abet of the sunshine, sandy soil, and the truth that underground freshwater, which is lighter than seawater, “floats” above the saltier groundwater beneath.

When rainwater from the hills reaches the sandy dwelling around Ghar El Melh’s lagoons, in must mixing immediately with the brine beneath, it kinds a skinny layer of contemporary groundwater.

Twice a day, the tides of the nearby Mediterranean elevate the stage of every, bringing treasured freshwater eager with the vegetables within the ramli plots.

“It’s as if the ocean is suckling its young,” said Abdelkarim Gabarou, who has labored the veteran plots for greater than 40 years.

‘Every fall of water’

The ramli farms—ramli is Arabic for “sandy”—quilt around 200 hectares (500 acres) and toughen around 300 people.

They were listed last 300 and sixty five days within the UN Food and Agriculture Group’s (FAO) checklist of Globally Necessary Agricultural Heritage Systems.

The FAO said the ramli system became as soon as “irregular no longer simplest in Tunisia however within the total world”.

Ramli own is claimed to indulge in a explicit taste, and is in excessive ask each locally and in Tunis.

Nonetheless farmers tell remorse that their merchandise lack formal certification, despite the FAO designation.

They indulge in to also contend with growing threats to their irregular farming system, each from local climate exchange and pattern.

As rainfall becomes much less in vogue and sea stages upward thrust, the ramli farmers’ soft dance with nature is becoming extra difficult.

“We’re totally reckoning on rainwater,” Garci said. “We try to protect it within the most pure manner imaginable.”

For the system to work, the roots of the vegetables must attain freshwater however also, crucially, no longer the saltwater beneath.

That requires precisely the superb amount of sand above: a layer precisely 40 centimetres (15-and-a-half inches) thick.

Raoudha Gafrej, an knowledgeable on water sources and local climate exchange, says it’d be discontinuance to-very unlikely to breed the ramli system in totally different places.

“This ingenious system doesn’t quilt an extensive dwelling… however now we indulge in to protect it, for the explanation that country wants each fall of water it would possibly per chance fetch,” she said.

Helpful actual property

In disagreement to in totally different aspects of Tunisia, these farms thrive all 300 and sixty five days round without artificial irrigation, allowing the farmers to own up to 20 tonnes (22 heaps) of crops per 300 and sixty five days.

Reeds give protection to the plots, appropriate four metres wide, from wind and erosion, however shielding them from human assignment is one more matter.

This dazzling coastline, the build a protracted strip of white sand separates the lagoon from the ocean, is smartly appreciated by holidaymakers.

“A great deal of farmers are pondering of marketing their land for appropriate prices, to those that must fabricate properties overlooking the ocean and the hills,” said Garci.

In the meantime, he says, very few young Tunisians must turn into farmers.

Nonetheless in a country the build 80 percent of water goes to irrigation, any effort to accomplish extra atmosphere pleasant use of water is useful.

On the Tunisian island of Djerba, the build summer water outages are in vogue, an NGO today renovated 15 outdated reservoirs to salvage rainwater for irrigation within the drier months.

Gafrej said such efforts were a must-indulge in.

“Now we indulge in to abet this tradition of water preservation to recall root,” she said.

© 2021 AFP