SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This study relates to 1400 square kilometres in the vicinity of Tripoli, Libya, in which irrigated, and semi-irrigated, settled agriculture was being carried out in 1968, and in which major changes had taken place in the agricultural geography of the area following the discovery and exploitation of the country's petroleum resources. The physical character of the area and its economic and historical background are first outlined. The main part of the thesis is concerned to confirm a number of propositions, namely that there has been an intensification and extension of agriculture through the development of irrigated farming and at the same time a lessening of the separateness in the characters of the 'traditional' and 'ex-colonist' farms. The only marked differences between the appearance and character of traditional Libyan 'gardens' and the holdings set up during the Italian administration (1912-1943) still evident in 1968 will be established and afterwards shown to be subject to considerable modification. A second group of propositions, concerned with crucial constraints on the continued development of irrigated agriculture, are presented in sections treating the inadequacy of underground water resources, the difficulties attendant on the upward trend in agricultural wages and the problems of financing further viable agricultural development. The evidence presented to confirm these propositions has been derived from personal fieldwork carried out in 1967 and 1968, when the author was concerned with aspects of the organisation and administration of the Libya University - London University Joint Research Project. Material collected through the field surveys of the project, both published and unpublished has also been included. Much emphasis is given to photogrammetric techniques in that satisfactory comparative data for earlier periods were only available in photographic form. Statistical analysis by multi-variate and other techniques has been incorporated in various sections, notably that relating to the 'separateness' of the farm types.