Agriculture in Motion: Intertwined Geographical and Socio-professional Mobilities in North Africa’s Groundwater Economy

Year 2018, Issue: 4, 33 - 45, 01.01.2018

Marcel Kuper Mohamed Naouri Tarik Hartani

https://doi.org/10.32325/iaad.2018.31

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the greenhouse horticulture in Algeria’s Sahara, which is one illustrative example of the agricultural transitions that have taken place in North Africa on the new irrigation frontiers created through groundwater use. The entrepreneurial farming systems in the region are characterized by considerable mobility. Geographic mobilities of people, ideas, capital, information, and objects and socio-professional mobilities are intrinsically intertwined, whereby skilled sharecroppers and laborers move sometimes over hundreds of kilometers, attracted by the opportunities of quick monetary gains and by the opportunities of rapid socio-professional upward mobility. This paper analyzes, first the different forms of socio-professional and geographical mobilities associated with the groundwater-based farming systems in Algeria’s Sahara, with a particular focus on mobile young farmers; then focuses on the multiple borders that these young farmers crossed on their trajectory; and their return journey after they quit the Sahara

Keywords

Agriculture, irrigation, groundwater, mobility, North Africa

Devinen Tarım: Kuzey Afrika’nın Yeraltı Suyu Ekonomisinde İç İçe Geçmiş Coğrafi ve Sosyo-profesyonel Hareketlilikler

Abstract

Bu makalede, Kuzey Afrika’nın yeraltı suyu kullanımıyla oluşturulan sulama sınırlarındaki tarımsal dönüşümlerin aydınlatıcı örneklerinden biri olan Cezayir Sahra’sındaki sera bahçeciliği incelenmektedir. Bölgedeki girişimci tarım sistemleri, dikkate değer bir hareketlilik ile nitelenmektedir. İnsanların, fikirlerin, sermayenin, bilginin ve nesnelerin coğrafi hareketliliği ve sosyo-profesyonel hareketlilikler, ortakçı çiftçiler ve işçilerin, hızlı parasal kazançların ve sosyo-profesyonel yükselme olanaklarının çekiciliğine kapılarak bazen yüzlerce kilometre yer değiştirmeleri vasıtasıyla, özünde iç içe geçmiş durumdadırlar. Bu makale, hareketli genç çiftçileri odağına alarak, Cezayir Sahra’sındaki yeraltı suyu merkezli tarımsal sistemlerle ilişkili sosyo-profesyonel ve coğrafi hareketliliklerin farklı formlarını, bu genç çiftçilerin güzergahlarında geçtikleri çoklu sınırları ve Sahra’yı bırakmaları ardından yaptıkları geri dönüş yolculuklarını analiz etmektedir

Keywords

Tarım, sulama, yeraltı suyu, hareketlilik, Kuzey Afrika

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