Three months have passed since the Algerian authorities, particularly the military, expelled Moroccan farmers from the Oasis El Arja, which they had been farming for more than 50 years. Today the authorities local, represented by the governor of the province of Bouarfa, and the representatives of the farmers affected by this arbitrary decision, reached a consensus on how to compensate them for the losses they suffered after losing their farms and palm trees.
In details, the Wilaya of Oujda recently hosted a meeting in the presence of the Wali of the Oriental region, the governor of the province of Bouarfa, and members of the council representing the peasants expelled from the oasis of El Arja. This meeting resulted in an agreement on the granting of a “ financial aid »To farmers who have invested in irrigated land, and land to plundered owners.
According to the agreement reached between the authorities and the representatives of the farmers evicted from the Oasis of El Arja after the Algerian neighbor annexed it, the farmers who own irrigated palm trees who have invested in the Oasis since 1990, will receive a financial subsidy according to the number and type of palm trees owned by each farmer.
Reliable sources have reported to Hespress, that the financial value set by the authorities to compensate farmers investing in the irrigated lands of the Oasis of El Arja, has been set at 8,000 dirhams for a palm tree of the type ” Aziza“, While the palm tree of the type” Boufkouss Ghrass Was estimated at 5,000 dirhams.
Farmers investing in irrigated land will thus receive 4,000 dirhams for each palm tree “Boufkouss “, And 2,500 dirhams for each palm tree” l3issiane », While they will receive 2,500 dirhams for each tree planted in the farms they operated in El Arja. before their expulsion.
As for the farmers who own the irrigation areas, the authorities have decided to give them a 200-hectare plot which will be developed and transformed into agricultural plots suitable for growing palm trees.
Thus, the farmers who were evicted from the oasis of El Arja on March 18, began to submit their files in order to benefit from the financial subsidy, for investors in irrigated lands, and to benefit from the lands that the authorities will develop for the owners of agricultural land. The records include a statement of the number and type of palm trees they owned on their farms in El Arja before the crisis.
Although the peasants who were expelled from El Arja by the Algerian authorities remain attached to their lands and assure that nothing can replace them, whatever the value of the compensation, they nevertheless accepted the offer made by the local authorities which was the subject of an agreement in principle which was signed by the two parties, according to sources of Hespress.
.
