Small farmers in Mahdia reject the verdicts issued against several of them

Hamdi Qiza, the official spokesperson for the Coordinating Committee of Small Farmers in Awlad Jaballah, from the delegation of Malloush (Mahdia governorate), expressed the committee's rejection of the verdicts issued against several farmers and the arrest of two committee members. In a statement to a "WAT" journalist, he mentioned that the committee members were surprised by in absentia trials, "which contradicts the agreement made with regional authorities in 2021, which stipulated stopping the prosecutions," according to him.

He added that the arrests and trials were "due to the protests carried out by the small farmers of Awlad Jaballah in 2021 against companies dominating the fodder sector," as he put it. He stated that the farmers demanded "to confront the fodder cartels that control the fate of livestock breeders by raising prices," describing these demands as "legitimate."

He emphasized the need to pay attention, in return, to "the cases presented by small farmers since 2021, which have not been considered to date," according to him, considering that these trials "will only inflame the situation" and small farmers' readiness "to return to the streets," as he put it.

Dozens of small farmers in the Awlad Jaballah area of the Malloush delegation protested for over a month in 2021 against the high prices of fodder and the low price of milk at production.

The Mahdia governorate has more than 40,000 livestock breeders, including 14,000 whose herds consist of three cows or less, while the region's livestock herd includes about 600,000 heads of cattle and sheep.