ABSTRACT
In Algeria in particular, the policies of investment in economic and social infrastructure and of industrialization provided alternative employment for a fraction of the agrarian population. Since before World War II, the essential characteristic of the agrarian situation of the four North African countries has been the demographic pressure on the arable land. Tunisia transferred all of its demographic growth for a generation, and Morocco and Algeria had to consign a relatively significant portion of their demographic growth to the countryside—a little less than 1 percent per year in Morocco and 1.5 percent in Algeria. After more than three decades of independence, agricultural structures and production in the countries of the Maghrib are largely determined by the strong demographic pressure on the land. The observed improvement in revenues has been more the result of the rise in agricultural prices and related resources than by the increase in worker productivity.
