• Algeria ranks as Africa's second-largest food importer, trailing only Egypt.

• The government established the National Scientific Council for Food Security to integrate research and innovation into agriculture.

• The council's formation responds to persistent drought and aims to enhance sectoral resilience against climate change.

Algeria, the second-largest food importer in Africa after Egypt, accelerates the integration of new technologies to boost the agricultural sector's resilience.

The Algerian government just established the National Scientific Council for Food Security. This new body, created during the national conference on agricultural sector modernization on October 27-28 in Algiers, accompanies the modernization of agriculture through scientific research and technological innovation.

Algeria press service (APS) reported that this body gathers 34 researchers and professors from various agriculture-related fields, alongside representatives from several ministries. Amar Azzioun, director of the Constantine Biotechnology Research Center, presides over the instance.

This initiative illustrates the government's determination to position scientific research as a central lever of national agricultural policy. Furthermore, authorities view research as a strategic tool to consolidate food security in the country. The government expresses an ambition to find modern solutions that enhance the agricultural sector’s resilience against climate change.

The drought gripping Algeria, and most of North African countries, affects water resource availability over several years. Consequently, this impacts agriculture and livestock farming. This structural constraint fuels a strong dependence on food imports.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) highlighted Algeria's import dependency in its report, "The State of Commodity Dependence 2025," published last July. UNCTAD underscored that Algeria imported nearly $10 billion worth of food products annually on average between 2021 and 2023. The country's primary imported commodities include wheat, powdered milk, sugar, and edible oils.

This article was initially published in French by Stéphanas Assocle

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum