Part 1 of this article

The region of Gabès knows a number of geothermal wells and this is one of them. Some are used to generate electricity, but most of them are used for irrigation purposes. The hot mineral-rich water coming out of the ground with a temperature of about 60ºC is being cooled in such spiral installations before it is pumped into the greenhouses and onto the fields in the area.

These weaving ladies were able to improve and commercialize their weaving activites by attending specialized courses, held  with the financial support from the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB. The full story can be read in the AfDB Project Brief.

This couple is going to get married in the next few days. She was the daughter of the house and had just undergone the traditional henna beautification of her hand and feet.

This road from the nearest town El Hama to this oasis El Hdaouna was tarred as part of the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB. This enables the local population to transport their goods (vegetables and fruit) to the markets more quickly and for the children to be able to get to school easily. It also means to the locals that the isolation in winter has ended when the road was sometimes impossible to use due to terrential rainfall. The full story can be read in the AfDB Project Brief.

The farmer, Imèd Boureguaa, here benefited mainly from a microcredit and a subsidy to start up his business in 2008. The newly tarred road which enabled him to transport his products (melons and tomatoes) quicker and more easily to the market in El Hama together with the geothermal water supply were the incentives to let him built his pepper and tomato greenhouses at this spot. The microcredit and the tarring of the road were financed by the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB. The full story can be read in the <a href=”http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Tunisia%20Newsletter%20Revised.pdf”>AfDB Project Brief</a>.

The farmer here benefited from the newly tarred road which enabled him to transport his products (melons and tomatoes) quicker and more easily to the market in El Hama. The tarring of the road was financed by the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB.

The farmer families here benefited from the tarred road which reaches to the oasis nearby. The tarring of the road was financed by the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB. For the future the farmers would like to see the paved road extended to their village and a water well to be dug. At the moment they have to transport their water in jerry cans from the oasis several kilometres away.

The road was washed away by rain weeks earlier. This shows the need for more preventive erosion measures in this area.

Here the farmer was able to purchase with the financial support from the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès” co-financed by the AfDB, pasture land for feeding bovine / ovine animals.

Late May I accompanied a mission of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to the Southern Tunisia. The purpose of the Mission was the evaluation of a 9 year “Integrated Agricultural Development Project” in the Governorate Gabès to increase the agricultural production and revenues of local farmers, while managing natural resources in a sustainable and equitable manner. The Bank financed about 50% (US$ 18 Million) of the total project as in form of a loan. The AfDB Regional Department North Africa 1 and the AfDB External Relations and Communication Unit produced a Project Brief about this mission with the title: Impacting North Africa, Highlighting the Impact of AfDB Operations in Africa, with my pictures. Take a look!

From our base in Tunis you can reach the town of Gabès either by an about 6 hours long drive or through the air. The domestic flight from Tunis to Gabès operates only twice a week and did not fit into our schedule. Therefore we used one the daily flights to the island of Djerba and were transferred to Gabès by car. The first day was mainly characterized by meetings with officials of the project in various offices in Gabès and a brief meeting in the afternoon with the Govenor of Gabès. The next two days we visited several of the project sites to see ourselves how the AfDB loan was able to support the local farmers and crafts women. We visited several farmers who benefited from the project on their fields growing melons and vegetables or in greenhouses growing tomatoes and peppers. Some goat and sheep herders in the region were also able to buy new life stock as part of the project. We saw kilometres of new roads, new wind and water erosion protections and met women who started their own weaving business producing fine carpets which were then certified by the authorities and later sold on regional or national markets. From the beneficiaries we learned valuable points for the evaluation and a possible future continuation of the project.

The hospitality of the locals was great. They offered us everywhere local specialities (couscous, melons, cheese,…). I have never had so much couscous in two days! Already after the first couple of itinerary points we were running late as we stopped at extra locations and did not expect all the food and refreshments we were offered. This resulted unfortunately in that we missed our flight from Djerba back to Tunis on the last day. I enjoyed very much travelling together with Karen, Sofien and Rafaa. Thanks guys for an unforgettable experience!

But now to the pictures (click on them to see larger versions):

After a long day of talks with officials we drove back to our hotel through the oasis of Gabès and stopped next to some farmer for a small talk.

This Agricultural Service Company in Matmata Nouvelle provides prospective farmers with the necessary parts , seeds, fertilizer and irrigation material.

This farm profited from the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB, through the financing of the installation of an irrigation system on the entire perimeter. This allows more controlled and productive growth of water and honey melons.

This is a research farm which tries to improve the agriculture and live stock farming in arid regions.

These berber families in a village near Beni Zelten are producing fine certified traditional carpets, which they sell to regional traders. The husbands are farmers.

In the neighbouring building the family run their own olive oil press.

This centre traines local women in weaving traditional carpets. It also provides technical assistance and quality control as well as promotion and commercialization of the finished products. After passing an exam these ladies can start their own business in their homes. So far more than 500 women have been trained. The centre is part of the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB.

This farmer was attracted by the project and returned to the region. He has just started  growing grapes with the geothermal water irrigation.

This herder benefited from the life stock project, part of the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB. He was able to buy new goats and is now selling the milk on the local market.

Ms. Fathia TARHOUNI, a carpet weaver from Tounine-Dkhilet Toujan, won in 2006 the presidential prize for the second best Mergoum. The Mergoum is a form of ground tapestry and are specific to a whole area of Eastern Sahara, extending from Southern Tunisia to the North of Chad. In Tunisia, the production of Mergoums is subjected to the Quality label of ONAT (Office National de l’Artisanat Tunisien). She received training and personal support, which were financed by the “Integrated Agricultural Development Project of Gabès”, co-financed by the AfDB. The full story can be read in the AfDB Project Brief.

Toujane is a Berber mountain village in southern Tunisia, near Medenine, divided into two parts by a valley.

The mayor of Matmata, Mr. Zaabi RAFIK, showed us an interesting way of collecting and storing water in the vicinity of the city. The water is collected by large concrete areas leading the water down hill into large underground water tanks. The stored water is enough to irrigate the fields in the valley.

Part 2 of this report