ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the modern farms as those set up between 1911 and 1939. Although the area devoted to irrigate cropping grew in importance from 1933, dry land farming dominated the modern sector. From 1950, the mixed olive/almond/vine plantations in the modern sector were converted to purely olive culture in areas where Italian farmers had the confidence to continue their farm development programmes. Italian farmers were encouraged to stay on their farms and the extremely high prices offered for food crops stimulated continued cultivation, as did exceptionally favorable weather conditions. This chapter shows the grazing lands associated with the traditional irrigated farms of Western Libya includes both Gefaran ranges and fallow and uncultivated areas within the oases, which are used for scavenging by livestock, kept on the farm. Only private estates developed by the Italians retained significant areas under orchards, and the predominant use of land throughout the province was livestock grazing with associated shifting cultivation.
