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DJEBBA, Tunisia: Excessive within the hills of northwestern Tunisia, farmers are tending hundreds of fig bushes with a novel system of terracing they hope will defend them from ever-harsher droughts.
However the “hanging gardens” of Djebba El-Olia have been put to the take a look at this yr because the North African nation sweltered by way of its hottest July because the Nineteen Fifties.
That has exacerbated an extended drought that has left Tunisia’s reservoirs at only a third of their capability.
The gardens are provided with water from two springs excessive within the mountains.
The water is fed into the orchards by a community of canals which can be opened and shut at set instances, based on the dimensions of the orchard.
Crucially, all kinds of crops supplies resilience and in-built pest management, not like the monocultures that dominate trendy agriculture and require large inputs of pesticides to outlive.
“We develop figs but in addition different bushes like quinces, olives and pomegranates, and beneath them we plant a variety of greens and legumes,” stated activist Farida Djebbi as bugs buzzed between thyme, mint and rosemary flowers.
Djebbi identified among the channels, which irrigate the world’s 300 hectares of steeply sloping orchards.
In 2020, the Meals and Agriculture Group acknowledged the system for example of “progressive and resilient agroforestry,” including it to an elite listing of simply 67 “Globally Vital Agricultural Heritage Programs.”
The system “has been in a position to adapt and benefit from an inhospitable topography,” the UN company stated.
“By means of using pure geological formations and using stones, native communities have been in a position to remodel the panorama into fertile and productive lands.”
The FAO praised the range of native crop varieties grown by the world’s farmers, in addition to their use of untamed crops to repel potential pests and of livestock to “plow” and fertilize the soil.
Whereas no one is aware of precisely how outdated the system is, human habitation within the space predates the Carthaginian civilization based within the ninth century B.C.
However whereas it could have endured for generations, the system is underneath menace as local weather change kicks in.
Activist Tawfiq El-Rajehi, 60, says the circulation of water from springs irrigating the world has dropped off noticeably, significantly prior to now two years.
In contrast to in earlier years, the encircling peaks now not get lined in snow every winter, and the leaves of most of the bushes within the decrease a part of Djebba are yellowing and sick.
Rajehi, a instructor on the native college, stated local weather change and low rainfall had been compounded by one other issue: Farmers favoring money crops.
“Some farmers have moved to rising extra figs as an alternative of much less water-intensive crops as a result of figs have change into extra worthwhile in recent times,” he stated. “We have to maintain a very good steadiness and number of crops.”
However, residents say they’re happy with their heritage. Farmer Lotfi El Zarmani, 52, stated there was additionally rising demand for Djebba figs, which got a protected designation of origin by the Agriculture Ministry in 2012 — nonetheless the one Tunisian fruit to benefit from the certification.
“They’re getting a fame, plus exporting them has change into simpler, plus they create increased costs,” Zarmani stated, including that the majority exports go to the Gulf or neighboring Libya.
Rajehi’s daughter, college pupil Chaima, placed on protecting gloves as she got down to harvest the fruit from her household’s small lot.
“Figs are greater than a fruit for us. We’re born right here among the many fig bushes and we develop up with them, we study from a younger age how you can take care of them,” the 20-year-old stated.
Djebbi is working to steer farmers to protect conventional methods of processing the merchandise harvested within the space.
She is working with 10 different girls on a cooperative that distils essence from wildflowers, dries figs, and produces fig and mulberry jam.
“Merchandise we learnt how you can make from our moms and grandmothers have gotten widespread as a result of they’re of such top quality,” she stated.
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