Enjeux, pratiques et contraintes pour une mise en valeur agroécologique des terres au Sahara. Cas d’un périmètre péri-oasien dans la Vallée du M’Zab (Algérie).

This article analyzes the adoption of practices face to the ecological and social issues and the constraints perception to agroecological development in the M’Zab Valley. The socioecological approach shows that the current agrosystem is “hybrid”, under the influence of the old oasis model, symbol of ecological balance, and of the conventional model, vector of both a dynamic of innovations and threats on agricultural sustainability. However, the institutional environment is perceived to be very restrictive. The application of multinomial logistic regression to explain the practices adoption and the constraints perception brings out the socio-demographic characteristics (level of education, age, pluriactivity, link with environmental association) which have a positive effect on agroecological practices; the productions (vegetables and breeding) whose effect is ambivalent; and social categories (low level of education, mono-activity, sheep and goat farming) who perceive the institutional environment rather very restrictive to the development of agroecology.