Innovation field

Algeria / wadi Souf

Summary

The artisanal mini-pivot, inspired by the conventional large-scale pivot model, is made of parts collected from scrap yards then recycled and transformed into components and accessories by local artisans in wadi Souf (Algeria). It has been the subject of an open innovation process for more than a decade with inputs from a number of artisans and feedback from hundreds of farmers. Its manufacturers assemble it with the help of young workers to ensure mass production and meet the needs of the market. There are now 36 000 pivots installed in the region, especially for potato production, and the pivot is exported to other Saharan regions and even abroad.

Emergence of the innovation

In wadi Souf, over-pumping in the deep aquifers in the absence of a water drainage and evacuation system, had led to groundwater levels rising up. This resulted in the death of palm trees by asphyxiation and the gradual disappearance since the 1980s of more than 50% of the date-palm heritage and of the ‘ghouts’ water supply system. In search of alternative crops, farmers turned to market gardening in small plots of 1 to 2 ha irrigated with plaster-lined seguias (irrigation channels). However, this technique had many constraints, in particular the maintenance needed to remove sand deposits from the ducts, maintenance costs and labour requirements.

These difficulties coincided with the introduction of an imported conventional pivot model designed for the irrigation of cereal crops exceeding 30 ha through a subsidy programme. This highly advanced technology was not adapted to the farmers’ needs and capacities, and in particular the unavailable areas on the farms. It was an energy-intensive model with a complicated automated setting system, operating under high water pressure and requiring significant investments.

In the early 1990s, Sufi artisans manufactured a local handmade device inspired by the imported model. The idea came from a young farmer's son who wanted to help his father and spare him the difficulties of seguia-based irrigation. The originality of this innovation process is that this young innovator decided to share his idea with artisans in his neighbourhood and to set it up on farmers' plots without having produced an operational device. In response to this initiative, a dozen artisans got involved to develop the artisanal pivot over a period of 10 years, obtaining feedback from hundreds of farmers. A number of local models were adjusted following breakdowns and problems encountered on the field before arriving at a mini-pivot model that has been distributed in its current form since 2000.

Solution(s) provided by the innovation

The solutions provided by the artisanal mini-pivot in the Souf region are mainly linked to the advantages it offers:

• It emerged as a response to a water crisis in the ghouts and allowed farmers to offset this crisis, and spurred them on by creating a new agrarian dynamic.
• Compared to seguia-based irrigation, it can be easily programmed in the evening and the irrigation is triggered automatically without having to be present on the field; the pivot does not require labour for either maintenance or the development of the plot.
• In addition to this technical advantage, the manufacturers have adapted to the farmers’ needs: sale on credit, after-sales service and repair, and mass production to satisfy demand.
• The emergence of the artisanal mini-pivot has also enabled the development of a value chain involving multiple actors (artisans, traders, farmers) in the various stages, namely: provisioning through the collection and import of parts, recycling and manufacturing of components, assembly and installation.
• This professional network has created jobs for young people and so helped to reduce the unemployment rate: for example, young graduates from vocational training centres who joined the network as trainees in the workshops have become well-known manufacturers in the area.

History of evolution since emergence (implementation on the field)

Before being distributed in its current form, the artisanal mini-pivot went through different stages. Its success is the result of input from many artisans and the combination of ideas through a progressive and continuous open innovation process.

The first model produced by the innovator in the early 1990s was 'asymmetric'. It had many disadvantages, mainly related to its poor fixation and short operating period, i.e. a timer with an on/off cycle with a five-minute time span. However, it is considered as a trigger for the innovation process. After sharing the idea and setting up the pivot on a farmer's plot, the intervention of other artisans focused on producing and improving a second 'symmetrical' model operating with hydraulic pressure. This solved many problems (integration of a control box ensuring sufficient running time to irrigate for four to five hours; stabilisation of the machine by symmetrical weight distribution on either side), but the low pressure available at the head of the station meant that the machine could not be run in windy conditions. As a result, the artisans returned to the first ‘asymmetric’ model and integrated new devices, namely a fixation crosspiece made of steel and then galvanised tubes (anticorrosive), a worm-gear reducer allowing the adjustment of an adequate running speed, and a suitably high tower positioned so as to maintain the stability of the whole machine (artisanal mini-pivot).

Finally, after 10 years, the artisanal pivot has been widely distributed since the year 2000 by its manufacturers, who continuously try to improve it according to the needs of their customers (farmers).

Users' opinions / elements of acceptance of the innovation

In addition to having facilitated irrigation, the mini-pivot meets the needs of its users in particular by adapting to their cropping systems.

It attracts young people much more and has allowed them to return to farming (as a main or second activity), particularly to produce potatoes under pivot. By coinciding with the introduction of this crop, this system has accompanied the development of a market garden basin in the Souf region. It has thus gradually led to the extension of entrepreneurial farming geared to production and specialised in potatoes. During the winter, these producers arrive on the national markets without competition from the country's other market garden basins.

More than 36 000 mini-pivots are now installed, under which one million tons of potatoes are produced annually. This has enabled wadi Souf to become the leading department producing this crop, mainly specialising in late-season potatoes.

The artisanal mini-pivot in association with market gardening has enabled small-scale farmers to generate profits and then to use them for the gradual reconstitution of their palm groves. The artisanal pivot covers 30 to 40% of the area of this type of farmer, under which the cropping system is less intense; crop rotation (potato, garlic, onion, carrot, etc.) and fallowing are applied.

Finally, the mini-pivot is also used by livestock farmers to produce fodder crops and produce their own livestock feed. This is done in particular with the aim of fattening livestock, particularly sheep and cattle, on site for three months to be sold during religious festivals such as ‘El aïd Al-adha’.

Economic assessment of the innovation

In addition to its flexibility and ease of use, the artisanal mini-pivot is sold at the reasonable price of €1 400. Compared to sprinklers and drip irrigation, it is 2 to 5 times less expensive depending on the quality of the equipment chosen.

The ‘micro-diffuser’ watering components mounted on this mini-pivot, although sold without a technical data sheet, are available and accessible on the market at a reasonable price (€0.30/unit in comparison with mini-sprays from €2/unit). Farmers also feel that they can easily handle them according to their rough estimates of the quantities they want to apply.

According to the farmers, its combination with potato cultivation is very profitable. For example, a new, previously unused plot of land can produce an average of 300 to 400 quintals of potatoes per pivot. With such yields and an average market price of DA 30/kg, or €0.21, the gain made in a single crop year (back season and in season) allows the farmers to amply recoup their investment costs during the first pivot potato crop year. This includes the cost of setting up the plot, installing the pivot and the crop expenses.

Then, at the same selling price of DA 30/kg, from the second year onwards the farmers can achieve a net profit of approximately DA 500 000 in a single season, which corresponds to the annual salary of a civil servant engineer in a state-owned company.

Prospects for the evolution of the innovation

In the Souf region, the improvement process allows the device to be continuously adapted to the farmers' needs. After having solved the problems of the fixation and moving of the device, the people behind this innovation have taken on new challenges to respond to new needs, in particular remote control via smartphone and the improvement of water distribution under the pivot. To do this, they are using new ways of sharing information, such as social networks like YouTube and WhatsApp. The older manufacturers are finding themselves relatively overwhelmed by the integration of these technologies but are trying to adapt.

However, irrigation using the artisanal pivot is based on the over-pumping of groundwater (from the water table). With its widespread distribution, the drawdown of the water table is being increasingly observed, by an estimated 1 to 2 m per year depending on the area. Furthermore, this intensive monocropping system using a large amount of chemical fertiliser (5 q/pivot) and organic fertiliser (poultry droppings, 80 q/pivot) has a harmful impact on soil and water resources, particularly in terms of the invasion of diseases and pests and the infiltration of pollutants into the water table. This depletion of groundwater and the intensity of inputs raises questions as to the system’s sustainability and its environmental impact.

Conditions for the dissemination of the innovation and replicability

After its success in its territory of innovation, the artisanal mini-pivot has been disseminated in the Saharan regions of Algeria (notably Sebseb in the department of Ghardaïa where more than 250 mini-pivots have been installed) but also in Sudan and Saudi Arabia (a dozen mini-pivots since 2018).

The journey of this innovation outside its homeland has led to an adaptation of the socio-technical network (involvement of intermediaries, calling in new skills on site). Nevertheless, this process is characterised by a strategy of ‘opening/closing the innovation’ in the new territories, depending on the situations and ambitions of its stakeholders (defending the property rights of the innovation, new market opportunity, etc.).

The innovation adopted in the new territories allows for a regrouping of the actors in the field around a common idea, i.e. readapting the device to the new context of use, e.g. replacing the micro-diffusers by mini-sprays fixed to a PVC tube ramp mounted on the crossbar.

Associated risks, negative externalities

The mini-pivot is at the origin of the development of the market gardening basin and the creation of an agrarian dynamic in the Souf region, but its use involves risks linked in particular to the depletion of groundwater which is non-renewable or which is so only to a very limited extent. This could be solved by integrating technicians into the innovation process to improve its hydraulic performance by readjusting the device, which should be carried out with the contribution of the innovation actors (manufacturers, artisans and users).

Furthermore, this innovation associated with an intensive single crop potato farming system also involves risks related to the pollution of soil and water resources, even though it has allowed wadi Souf to become the leading potato producing department (with 1 million tons annually).

Additional documentation

Ould Rebai A, Hartani, T, Chabaca M N, Kuper M, 2016. Emergence d’une agriculture entrepreneuriale irriguée par pivot artisanal après la crise hydraulique des Ghouts dans le Souf. Workshop gestion durable et intégrée des territoires oasiens, 13-15 avril 2016, Zagora, Maroc.

Ould Rebai A, Hartani T, Chabaca MN, Kuper M. 2017. Une innovation incrémentielle : la conception et la diffusion 623 d’un pivot d’irrigation artisanal dans le Souf (Sahara algérien). Cah. Agric. Vol: 160195.

Ould Rebai A, Hartani T, Chabaca MN, Kuper M. 2017. Innovations par les agriculteurs-entrepreneurs sur les techniques d’irrigation en maraichage sous aspersion dans la région d’Oued Souf. Doctoriales de l’irrigation, 17 mai 2017, Montpelier, France.

Ould Rebai A, Hartani T, Chabaca MN, Kuper M, 2018. L’appropriation technologique du Génie Rural : cas du pivot artisanal d’Oued Souf. Séminaire international génie Rural au Service de l’Environnement, octobre 2018, ENSA, Algérie.

Ould Rebai A, Hartani T, Kuper M, 2022. The outward journey of a local innovation: the dissemination of an artisanal irrigation pivot from Algeria’s Sahara. New Medit, 21(5). https://doi.org/10.30682/nm2205e

Ould Rebai A, Hartani T. L’apport de l’innovation dans la gestion des ressources souterraines : cas de la wilaya de Ghardaïa. Séminaire international sur la biodiversité animale, protection et environnement, mai 2022, ENSA, Algérie.

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