Algiers — President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday ordered a crackdown on agricultural hoarding and a total ban on using green corn as livestock feed.

President Tebboune gave the instructions at a Council of Ministers meeting he chaired on Sunday, focused on the agriculture, rural development and fisheries sector, according to a Council of Ministers statement.

Following an in-depth presentation by the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, the President of the Republic commended the minister's report then issued a number of instructions and directives, regarding most notably "the fight of all forms of withholding and hoarding agricultural produce by farmers, given that the state has opened widely the way for buying strategic agricultural crops at the best prices."

President Tebboune also ordered "a total ban on the use of corn as green fodder in Algeria to feed livestock, as it has in no way had a positive effect on meat production or on meeting the national market's needs, but on the contrary has led to a sharp shortage of grain corn."

He also ordered "a ban on resorting to idling land and leaving it unused, on a mistaken basis that has no connection to modern, contemporary agriculture."

The President of the Republic further stressed the need to "fight all forms of fraud in the agriculture sector, from production to distribution and supply."