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Algeria The National Union of Algerian Farmers
The National Union of Algerian Farmers (Union Nationale des
Paysans Algériens--UNPA) was created in 1973 and officially
incorporated by the FLN. The UNPA has great organizational
complexity, having a number of affiliated and administrative
bodies at the local and regional levels. The UNPA has less
autonomy than other national associations because the Ministry of
Agriculture has assumed many of its ostensible functions. Most
agricultural lands were nationalized under Boumediene, and the
union thus consists of farmers having few or no noncollectivized
lands. Lacking an independent history as a union before its
creation as part of the party apparatus, the UNPA has been less
politically active, less cohesive, and less influential than some
of its counterparts. Reciprocal efforts by the government to
revive the agricultural sector and by the union to educate the
government regarding the inherent limitations of small
cultivators have improved the number of services and general
production conditions of agricultural workers. Government reforms
under Benjedid decentralized and broke up ownership of most of
the nationalized lands, although demands persisted for the
restitution of all nationalized lands. These demands were loudest
from factions that have broken off from the UNPA to form their
own independent agricultural unions since 1988.
Data as of December 1993
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