Panel on the potato seed industry
“Potatoes towards Algerian Sovereignty by Dr. Amine Bensemmane, President of SIPSA & the Filaha Innove Reflection Group (GRFI).
The organization of the National Workshop on the Potato Seed Sector in El Oued, on February 19 and 20, 2025, was much more than a simple professional event. It was the starting point for an ambitious, structuring and visionary dynamic, dedicated to a crop that is both emblematic and strategic for our national agriculture: the potato.
With over 180,000 hectares cultivated each year and an average per capita consumption of 85 kg, this sector plays a central role in the country's food security. And yet, it remains exposed to worrying fragilities: shrinking acreage, falling yields, increasing scarcity of water resources, and above all, heavy dependence on imported seeds, representing up to 120,000 tonnes imported annually from European countries.
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Against this backdrop, the cost of seeds - representing almost two-thirds of production costs - is becoming a major factor of economic vulnerability for farmers, weighing on farm profitability and the final price for consumers.
Faced with this situation, the El Oued workshop laid the foundations for a national strategy of seed autonomy, mobilizing a remarkable diversity of public and private, scientific and operational players around a common objective: to build, together, a local, sustainable and traceable seed industry adapted to the constraints of the Sahara.
Our partnership with the École Supérieure d'Agriculture Saharienne (ESAS) in El Oued has enabled us to give this workshop a dimension deeply rooted in local realities, but open to the most promising innovations, starting with in vitro micro-propagation, hydroponics and aeroponics.
These technologies are not ends in themselves, but powerful levers in the service of a modernized, efficient and sovereign industry. Provided, of course, that we create the conditions for their local adoption: support for training multipliers, structuring seed cooperatives, developing experimental farms, setting up shared logistics units, and introducing a simple, accessible certification system.
We also need to rethink our modes of governance, fully involving producers, technicians, researchers and institutions in a cooperative approach. Because only collective, coordinated, multi-actor action can enable us to meet the agricultural challenges of the future.
By 2050, Algeria will need to feed more than 65 million people. This requires, among other things, a 55% increase in potato production. This objective can only be achieved through complete mastery of the seed industry.
That's why I'd like to salute all the participants in this workshop, the speakers, the experts, the pioneering farmers, the scientific and technical institutions, and all those who, through their commitment and know-how, are already helping to lay the foundations for a strong, sovereign and innovative seed industry.
The El Oued workshop was a founding moment. It must now become a catalyst for public policy, structuring investment and strategic cooperation. Together, we have proved that another model is possible: a Saharan model that is resilient, technological, rooted in the regions and looking to the future.
With confidence, determination and a collective spirit, let's continue on this path towards Algerian seed sovereignty.
