Introduction

While the Libyans were establishing their varied and somewhat radical programs of farm improvement using medic pastures, the Algerian Government turned its attention to introducing medic too, but in a more conventional manner.

Background

The Libyan projects were inspired by observation of the medic system in operation in Australia. It is not clear what sparked off the FAO/Algerian interest in the system. It may have originated from a small project in Tunisia undertaken between 1971 and 1974 by Dr John Doolette, a South Australian agronomist, who had been on the staff of the Turretfield Research farm, and who went to work for CIMYTT.

The joint Tunisian/CIMYTT project was to increase cereal yields by replacing fallow with medic pastures on some cooperative and private farms in the El Kef district of Northern Tunisia. Dr Doolette worked alone, training Tunisian counterparts as he went along. The ordinary commercial varieties of medic, Harbinger (M. littoralis) and Jemalong (M. truncatula), imported from Australia established well on all sites.

The profitable exploitation of the medic was not so straightforward. Dr Doolette found many barriers in the way of the farmer who wanted to increase his productivity and reduce the erosion on his farm by using medic pasture. Deep ploughing created a rough seed bed that was not helpful to the germination of medic. When used for cereals it prevented good regeneration.