Stakeholder views on restoring depleted cereal fallows in arid Tunisia: Societal barriers and possible crevices

All dryland countries struggle with manmade dryland degradation and climate change will reinforce this trend. In arid Tunisia (100-200 mm annual rainfall), depleted cereal fallows are a prominent feature of the desertified landscape. Based on long-term agro-ecological work with promising native steppe grasses, this work explores the societal barriers to restoring cereal fallows with these species. Interviews were conducted with 23 stakeholders (researchers, local decision makers of development agencies and land users) and 40 statements were drawn from these interviews as well as from written sources. These were sorted by 27 stakeholders (some of whom were interviewed before) following a distinct Q-sorting technique inspired by Q-methodology. Principal Components Analysis of these Q-sorts revealed three major types of barriers. (1) A widespread knowledge barrier was obvious since opinion on several agro-ecological statements was often opposite to the scientific evidence. (2) Strong convictions about the sacred nature of barley cropping and olive growing pointed to a cultural barrier to sowing steppe grasses on cereal fallows; (3) Finally, especially non-scientific agropastoralists expressed a lack of trust in any state-backed project aimed at combating desertification. Without the living proof of economic benefits of reseeding, no spontaneous uptake of reseeding can be expected.