April 26, 2011

Algeria removes drought alerts for grain areas

Algeria's agriculture ministry lifted drought warnings on Monday (Apr 25) for the country's main grain-growing areas after rain fell for the first time in weeks.

The past week had rainfall in the provinces of Tiaret, with 26 millimetres (mm), Setif with 31mm, and Bordj Bou Arreridj with 39mm, according to the ministry's weekly weather update.

The ministry lifted drought warnings for the provinces of Tlemcen, Saida, Chlef, Medea and Batna. The period covered in the update is April 17 to 23. Since then heavy rain has continued to fall in many parts of the country.

Algeria is the world's seventh biggest importer of grain, with imports of 5.232 million tonnes last year, according to government customs data.

Its grain imports fluctuate according to the size of its domestic harvest, which reached a record 6.1 million tonnes in 2009 but fell back to 4.56 million tonnes last year because of bad weather.

In late March and early April, the government issued drought warnings for most of the main grain-growing regions and said the absence of rain was stressing cereal crops during a period when moisture is essential for the wheat plants to mature properly.

Algerian Agriculture Minister Rachid Benaissa said last week that the drought since the end of March would affect grain yields, but that durum wheat output is expected to be good.