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2009-03-07 Africa North
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Algeria to write off farmers' debts
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Algeria will write off 41 billion dinars in money owed banks by farmers and livestock breeders, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced Saturday (February 28th) at an agricultural conference in Biskra.
The announcement is a real lifeline for an Algerian farming community on the verge of collapse. Starting this week, banks will cease any proceedings to recover their debts.
This is the second intervention of its kind in just eight years. In 2001, the State stepped in to write off a 14 billion dinar debt. However, that action failed to have the desired effect. In eight years, the debt has almost tripled.
Bouteflika's announcement during his pre-electoral campaign came as a surprise, since the government had appeared to be somewhat intransigent on this point.
Four months ago, Agriculture Minister Saïd Barkat (now health minister) declared that no concessions would be made to the farmers. Barkat told Magharebia that "the age of writing off farmers' debts is past. The State had already tried this in 2001." He added that farmers would be expected to pay back both their loans and land premiums.
Since then, apparently, much has changed.
"[Farmers] are incapable of paying back their debt because of the drought, which has resulted in a net reduction in farming output over the last two years," National Union of Algerian Farmers chief Mohamed Alioui explained. 
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Posted by Fred 2009-03-07 00:00||
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