ABSTRACT
The agricultural sector in Algeria has gone through a series of reforms since the early 1980s.1 These have been part of the economic liberalization programme that successive governments endeavoured to implement, with some degree of success. With agricultural production increasingly not large enough to meet the rising needs of a growing population, this has not only led to the importing of large amounts of food, but has placed a heavy financial burden on the country as well. At the heart of the whole process has been a determination on the part of decision-makers to free the agricultural sector from most, if not all, forms of state control that over a period of time had come to be regarded as hindering its progress. Hence, restructuring this sector and allowing market forces to shape its development were deemed necessary. The various reforms undertaken have had as their ultimate aim the significant improvement of the country’s food security, something that has not been achieved on the whole so far.
