L'AGRICULTURE TUNISIENNE DANS UN CONTEXTE DE LIBÉRALISATION

The development of Tunisian agriculture has been carried out until recently under a relatively high level of protection and with public financial support. In this protected context, Tunisian agriculture experienced deep changes including increases in the total number of farms, particularly of micro-farms and of mid-size farms. At the territorial level, the emergence of new areas of production with a relatively fast transition from agropastoralism to intensive irrigated agriculture can be observed in some regions. Tunisia, the first country which signed an association agreement with the EC, maintained a certain level of protection for its agricultural sector, for economic and social reasons. The liberalization of the agricultural exchanges, as it brings competition into the internal market, may question this dynamics if not generally, at least for some sectors, farmers and territories which are least able to adapt to the changes entailed by this liberalization. This is notably the case of the household agriculture and the least competitive territories.