The ENPARD South Support Program team met Chérif OMARI, ESSP II focal point in Algeria, and Ali ZOUBAR, Central Director and Senior Engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, on 22 June 2017 in Algiers to discuss the undergoing works carried out in Algeria and the calendar of activities for the coming months.

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After emphasising the decisive role of agriculture in Algeria, both economically and socially, the participants highlighted the crucial challenge of modernising and reforming public support mechanisms for agriculture and the regulation of value chains.

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In this context, several activities are currently being implemented in Algeria under the framework of the ENPARD South Support Programme:

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• Diagnosis of the dairy sector and public support mechanisms for the value chain and identification of a new financing and development scheme for the sector. The opportunity to mobilise the experience of European experts in the dairy sector, particularly from Switzerland, was raised during the discussion in order to foster debates and facilitate the formulation of concrete proposals;

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• Reform of the financing mechanism for the agricultural sector. The Ministry of Agriculture has launched a project to optimise the agricultural support system by using a public-private partnership through a series of meetings. The aim is also to mobilise stakeholders to identify solutions and good practices - such as rationalisation of fertilisation and water consumption. The support program team will capitalise on the results achieved in the dairy sector in order to support the Ministry in its diagnosis and reform. In this context, the team is invited to participate in a day of debates organised in July by the Ministry;

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• Capacity building of cooperatives. Following the diagnosis made on the dynamisation of the cooperative agricultural system and the meetings and field trips organised within the framework of the support program in several wilayas, a project is planned to support the animation units of the cooperatives in the development of their action plans in collaboration with professionals (wilaya agriculture chambers). The Algerian partners insisted on the need to promote the emergence of leaders in these wilayas able to self-promote the cooperative system and ensure the dissemination of their experiences on the rest of the Algerian territory;

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• Coordination with other European projects. Following this meeting and a previous discussion between the ENPARD South Support Programme team and the Delegation of the European Union to Algeria, the support programme team is asked to promote the coordination and synergies with the other European agricultural projects currently being implemented in Algeria. In the past months, the team has initiated collaboration with the PAJE project - Youth Employment Support Program - on the issue of the dynamization of the producers’ organisations and the building of stakeholders’ capacities to form groups of common interests, in particular for the aromatic and medicinal plants sector. In addition, a partnership with the DIVECO 2 project - Support Program for the Diversification of the Economy for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture Activities - on the issue of the valorisation of fishery resources is currently underway.

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In addition, the meeting was an opportunity to discuss the planning of activities for the coming months. Two main issues could thus be addressed in future works:

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• Diagnosis of the potato, garlic and onion chains and proposals to optimise the support and supervision mechanisms for these sectors. This activity follows the launch of the "SYRPALAC 2" – System for the regulation of widely consumed agricultural products – by the Algerian Ministry in 2008 aiming at regulating several sectors of widely consumed agricultural products and to adapt the devices supporting these sectors either upstream and downstream;

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• Marketing of Algerian products on international markets and related issues (certification system, standardisation, upgrading process, quality signs, traceability, strengthening of supply chains, etc.). These issues remain a priority for the Algerian partners who wish, through the ENPARD initiative and as an extension of the first ENPARD Algeria workshop which focuses on these issues, to promote local capacity-building, sharing of experiences and ideas and to build potential partnerships with other Mediterranean countries on these issues.