Introduction

Following the completion of the FAO supported project in the mid-1970s, the Algerian interest in medic continued, but on a less formal basis. Only one cooperative, the Domaine Chouhada, at Khemis Miliana, out of the many that were sown to medic by the FAO project continued a rotation on part of the farm. We visited it a number of times and inspected the rotation with the farmer who was the resident farm manager. He was able to use a scarifier that had been given to the Algerian Government by an Australian manufacturer and so had no difficulty with regeneration of the pasture. He sold the cereal stubble elsewhere on the farm to nomad flockowners and had no difficulty in reserving the medic residues for his own flock. He did have problems with weeds in his cereals after pasture in spite of good grazing but he believed this was due to the increased fertility of the soil and he was able to develop a spraying program that was successful in controlling the weeds. His cereal yields increased after using medic pasture in place of fallow.

The research station at El Khroub had medic pasture which had also been sown in the 1970s and regenerated well. A scarifier and combine seeder were available on the centre for use in the cereal phase. Grazing management suffered from the feeding of the mandatory 200 g of grain per head to sheep each day.