A total of 940,000 hectares, out of 1.194 million, have been sown till January 25, according to data published on Wednesday by the National Observatory of Agriculture (ONAGRI). These areas cover 803,000ha in the north and 137,000 ha in the midland and south. Some 560,000 ha have been sown with durum wheat, 25,000 ha with soft wheat, 346,000 ha with barley and 8,500 ha with triticale. The irrigated grain land have reached 82,837 ha, i.e. 99% of the scheduled land (83,000 ha), against 72,000 ha during the same period last season. These land inlcude 60,000 of durum wheat and 22,000 ha of barley. Some 174,000 quintals of of selected seeds were made available to farmers in the regions, in addition to 8,000 quintals which were sold directly by the production companies. As for the progress made in the chemical fertiliser supply operation, the supply rate of Superphosphate (TSP 45) has reached 51% (15,180 tonnes delivered out of the scheduled 30,000 tonnes), 45% for Diammonium phosphate (DAP) (68,221 tonnes deli vered out of the scheduled 150,000 tonnes), and 34% for ammonium nitrate (86,000 tonnes delivered out of the planned 250,000 tonnes). ONAGRI further indicated that the Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) has a stock of 4,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the Gabes centre and 17,000 tonnes at the Gobellat storage centre in Beja. With regard to fodder crops, the area sown with autumn fodder is estimated at 251,000 ha (80% of the programmed area) till January 25, compared with 279,000 ha during the same period last season. This drop in the sown forage area is mainly due to the rainfall deficit recorded during September, October and November 2023 in most production regions and dropping quantities of the available seed. Irrigated fodder areas had reached 36,400 ha by January 25, i.e. 77% of the programmed area. This category of crop was also down in the previous season, due mainly to lower supplies to dams and the fall in groundwater resources in irrigated areas. Fodder area irrigated with treated water reached 661 ha out of the planned 826 ha (61%). As for leguminous crops, 68,800 ha are planned for the 2023/2024 season, including 2,500 ha of irrigated crops. For industrial crops, 21,000 ha of rapeseed are planned for the 2023/2024 season, compared with 8,400 ha cultivated during the 2022/2023 season. The area sown to date has reached 20,000 ha despite the drought. ONAGRI further said that an awareness-raising programme had been carried out for producers in the various rapeseed growing regions. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse
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