ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the sequential policy-making, which has shaped the present structure of production and the distribution of wealth and income in agriculture. It focuses on Algeria and Tunisia. The duration of colonial rule has shaped the rural economy's agrarian institutions in different degrees, which significantly influenced the content of rural development strategy in general, and land policy, in particular, after independence. The Algerian strategy for rural development during the 1962-1982 period should be seen in the context of an overall centrally planned economy organized along socialist lines. Having attained an egalitarian rural economy since independence, the policy-makers realized that it could not be sustained by low productivity and inadequate producers' incentives. The rural economy of Tunisia was shaped late last century by the colonization of the richest lands to grow wheat and grapes for making wine. Reliable data on living conditions in rural areas, at the time of independence, are scarce.
