Tunisia : review of the PL-480 supported development program

480 Title I-funded agricultural development activities in Tunisia. Special evaluation covers the period 1981-3/82 and is based primarily on document review. Progress is being made in most areas. Fertilizer supplies have increased in magnitude and remained of a high quality. Use of both ammonium nitrate (AN) and phosphate fertilizers has grown steadily. AN offtake increased by 22% during 1981-82 (to some 100,000 MT) compared to 1980-81, while phosphate use increased by 10%. All this occurred in spite of serious drought in the country's central and southern regions and a poor start during the rainy season. There has been increasing high-level political sensitization to the need to expand fertilizer use; an interministerial group has met frequently to deal with problems in this area. Other actions to improve distribution and consumption have included: (1) a special distribution study, recommending that private retailer profit margins be doubled; (2) a decision to maintain a strategic reserve of 20,000 MT of AN; (3) plans to construct 9 new regional fertilizer depots (80,000 MT capacity) and 41 new wholesale/retail facilities; and (4) expansion of the credit system to give small farmers better access and include farmers without land. A soil testing and tissue analysis laboratory has been established at Nabeul and six similar facilities are planned (as well as two others funded separately by A.I.D.); careful review will be needed to ensure that these laboratories can be properly staffed and managed. In other areas: studies of low-cost fertilizers and of constraints on small farmers have been planned; 60 new extension offices will be opened, 200 extensionists trained, and research-extension linkages improved; measures will be taken to expand availability of improved seeds and herbicides; and the Government of Tunisia has taken several actions to selectively reduce subsidies. Annexes include recommendations for specific agricultural development activities and for the self-help terms of the 1982 P.L. 480 agreement; implementation schedules for the period 3/82-4/83; and comparative analyses of fertilizer costs.