DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT OF THE DAIRY CATTLE FARMING SYSTEM IN NORTH-EASTERN ALGERIA (EL TARF WILAYA)

Abstract

Our work present a diagnostic assessment of the dairy cattle farming system of El Tarf wilaya (north-eastern Algeria), linking the technical structure of farms to their integration into formal collection and to the dynamics of that integration over time. A cross-sectional survey of 112 farms (2022–2023) provided the basis for a typology built by multiple correspondence analysis and clustering, complemented by an ordinal regression of the degree of formal integration; the collection register of the Directorate of Agricultural Services (443 farmers, 2014–2023) traced its trajectory. The typology distinguishes three systems ordered along a single intensification gradient extensive, semi-intensive and intensive with which milk yield is closely associated, unlike the agro-ecological zone. Integration into the formal channel appears decoupled from performance: it has a single structural correlate, the land-tenure constraint (OR 0.31; 95% CI 0.11–0.81). The register, finally, reveals unstable participation marked by pronounced intermittency: 28 to 53% of farmers present for several years leave the channel and later return to it. Because the survey centred on active formal suppliers, the diagnosis characterises this segment rather than the sector as a whole. These findings place the main obstacle not in production but in access to land, and in the trade-off between the premium offered by the formal channel and the liquidity of the informal one.