Uprooting a vine means tearing out a piece of memory. In western Algeria, this act, repeated thousands of times in the name of a risky modernization, captures the ecological tragedy now unfolding across the country. In his new book, La sécurité alimentaire à l’aune des changements climatiques (Éditions L’Odyssée), agronomist and writer Ali Kader offers a stark assessment: Algeria is caught between runaway desertification and the depletion of its water resources.

This dual crisis, far from being an inevitable consequence of climate change, stems from short-sighted agricultural choices that have sacrificed sustainability on the altar of immediate yield. It’s a stark reality that takes on new urgency as the country now imports more than 70 percent of its food needs.

The numbers are staggering. According to research by Khéloufi Benabdeli and Bouchtata Tarik of the University of Mascara, the desertification front has advanced by more than a hundred kilometers in just one generation. The Naâma region, once blanketed in green steppe, is watching its ecosystem deteriorate at an alarming pace.

The equation is brutal: a weakened ecosystem, prolonged drought, human overpressure, and poor governance have combined to accelerate desertification. What once belonged to the fringes of the Sahara now directly threatens the northern farmlands and the country’s key production basins.

“The pre-desert is creeping toward the Tellian zones,” warn scientists. This silent yet tangible advance is steadily turning arable land into barren soil, undermining the country’s ability to feed its population.

The water agony of the North-West

If sand is advancing in the South, water is retreating in the North. In the Ténira plain, south of Sidi Bel-Abbès, the crisis takes on another, equally devastating form. The once-abundant groundwater tables are sinking inexorably under the pressure of unregulated intensive tree farming.

“We’ve recorded a piezometric drop of two to three meters over five years,” reports a hydraulic engineer quoted in the book. In just fifteen years, running water has disappeared from rural homes, replaced by tanker trucks now crisscrossing the villages.

The mechanism behind this water crisis is clear. Private retention basins, built to supply fruit orchards, are siphoning off winter rainfall on a massive scale. This de facto privatization of a shared resource disrupts the natural recharge cycle of the aquifers, drying up community wells while private operations thrive.

From subsistence crops to fruit orchards: the illusion of prosperity

This shift from diverse subsistence farming to intensive fruit monoculture embodies the very logic Ali Kader criticizes: an agriculture that disregards natural balances and prioritizes short-term profits over food sovereignty.

Water-hungry fruit orchards are replacing traditional crops adapted to local climate conditions. This agricultural specialization creates a veneer of prosperity, where farm owners grow wealthy while rural communities watch their vital resources dwindle.

The author draws a striking parallel between the vine uprootings of the past and today’s monocultures. In both cases, there is the same rupture with the memory of the land, the same disregard for ecological cycles, and the same illusion that the land can be exploited without respecting its limits.

The strength of Ali Kader’s analysis lies in his ability to connect these seemingly separate phenomena. Desertification in the South and water depletion in the North are two sides of the same ecological and political failure.

“Where the sand advances, the water recedes,” the agronomist sums up. This systemic approach reveals the scale of the challenge. Food security cannot be built on such fragile foundations. Massively importing cereals will not solve the problem if arable land continues to degrade and water resources dwindle.

The current model is unsustainable. The soil is losing its fertility, agriculture is specializing in high-value but resource-hungry crops, and the country drifts further each day from genuine food sovereignty.

Rebuilding the agricultural pact

Confronted with this alarming reality, Ali Kader does more than just sound the alarm. He calls for a complete overhaul of the agricultural and environmental pact, built on three essential pillars: science, the memory of local practices, and truly collaborative governance.

This “green economy of clarity,” as he calls it, entails a complete rethinking of agricultural production based on sobriety rather than overexploitation. It means restoring the soil, preserving water, and rebuilding trust between people and the land.

The essay builds on the author’s earlier work on Algerian rural life and stands as a manifesto for a paradigm shift. It is a timely plea, arriving just as climate change intensifies the structural weaknesses of Algeria’s agricultural model.

Like those uprooted vines that carried away a millennia-old balance, Algeria risks losing far more than its arable land. The country’s very capacity to feed itself, and its relationship with the land, is at stake in this twin ecological and water crisis.

The question is no longer whether the country must change course, but whether there is still time. Between the desertifying steppes and the depleting aquifers, the window for action is closing. The remaining question is whether policymakers will heed this call for clarity before sand and thirst finally claim what remains of Algeria’s oasis.

Ali Kader, agronomist and writer

Hailing from Maâtkas in the Tizi-Ouzou province, Ali Kader is a trained agronomist and an engaged writer. A keen observer of Algeria’s rural world, he analyzes agricultural policies and environmental challenges with both scientific rigor and humanistic sensitivity.

A prolific author, he has published works including Le Rêve d’Isil, D’amour et de sang (on the Black Decade), and the seminal essay L’agriculture algérienne : entre progrès et regrets. His latest book, La sécurité alimentaire à l’aune des changements climatiques (Éditions L’Odyssée, 2025), examines public policies in the face of desertification and water depletion.

Frequently featured in specialized media, Ali Kader advocates an integrated approach in which science, peasant knowledge, and political responsibility come together to promote sustainable agricultural development.