Mnaouar Sghir, Director of Agricultural Production at the Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries (UTAP), said the Tunisian agricultural sector is facing a 25% shortage in animal feed, particularly compound feed.
Speaking to Mosaïque FM, he explained that rapeseed cultivation, introduced in Tunisia in 2014, represents an ideal solution to address this deficit, as it is a protein-rich forage crop that also produces high-value vegetable oil.
He stressed the importance of boosting local feed production as part of a national plan aimed at achieving self-sufficiency and reducing imports.
He noted that current cultivated areas stand at 15,000 hectares, producing around 16,000 quintals, including about 7,000 quintals used for vegetable oil production.
He added that the goal is to expand cultivation to 100,000 hectares, emphasizing that this would bring major benefits, including easing the feed shortage, preserving soil fertility, and enriching soils with organic matter through crop rotation (wheat–rapeseed).
