Title : Insight of farmers towards agrarian practices for soil management in Tunisia
Abstract:
This study complements a previous study. The previous study (in 2019) focused on the socio-economic effect of water and soil conservation works on farmlands at “Oued Sbayhia” watershed in “Zaghouen” region (northern east of Tunisia). However, erosion control strategies should not be restricted to water and soil conservation works installed by the government. It involves also targeted and well-studied agricultural practices and optimized agrarian actions for the better exploitation of deficient resources of soil and water. Thus, the aim of this research is to study the effectiveness and involvement of farmers towards these agrarian actions to fight erosion. Three development strategies are addressed to reduce erosion. Each strategy could be reached through some actions. A questionnaire -containing all the actions of the three strategies-was addressed to the farmers of the watershed. For each action we asked individually the farmers two questions: 1). Does the farmer see that action effective to limit erosion? The answer might be very effective, quite effective, a bit effective or not effective; 2). Will the farmer involve his farm in the execution of that action? the answer might be: yes or no. Then, after calculation, we positioned in a graph the obtained values onto two axes related to the effectiveness of actions (at ordinate axis) and involvement of farmers (at abscissa axis). As a results, the map positioning method allows us to perceive that there are three different types of actions according to the effectiveness and involvement of farmers: Type 1: Actions perceived as effective and involving: so, they are priority actions. Type 2: Actions perceived as rather effective but not involving and also actions perceived as rather effective but not involving; so, they are actions that must be communicated before they are implemented. More sensitization of farmers is necessary. Type 3: Actions perceived as ineffective and not involving: thus, they are actions that need to be better explained to farmers and probably over a longer period of time than actions in second position, a better awareness of farmers is required. Moreover, we have ranked these actions according to priority. Map positioning outcomes are important for decision makers.
Keywords: farmers, effectiveness, involvement, agricultural practices, map positioning.
What will audience learn from your presentation?
- This would provide a practical method to assess the effectiveness of some agricultural actions and the involvement of farmers to these actions.
- This map positioning method could simplify the researcher job as it more easy and more efficient method.
- The results would provide information to assist decision makers in order to resolve problems and to guide them for the lines they must focus on more.
- The audience might share learn about the situation of agricultural problems in Tunisia and they might share experiences and advices.
