CHEMLAL DE KABYLIE
Country: Algeria
Purpose: Oil
Synonyms: “Achamlal”, “Achamli”; “Achemlal”, “Chemlal Blanche d’Ali-Chérif”, “Chemlal”, “Chemlal de L’Oued-Aissi”, “Chemlal de Tizi-Ouzou”, “Chemlal Précoce de Tazmalt”, “Petit Chemlal Pendant”.
Distribution: 1 continent
Africa
Kabylia (Algeria): mountain Mediterranean olive growing
In Africa, Chemlal de Kabylie is documented as a cultivar tied to Kabylia in northern Algeria, where olive growing develops across inland and hilly Mediterranean landscapes. Here, olive culture functions as a territorial system: exposure, slopes, soils, and farming management jointly shape orchard balance and long-term continuity.
The cultivar’s broad presence and its multiple forms can also be read through propagation practices: grafting is reliable (including on wild olive), supporting replication across local environments, while rooting capacity is comparatively limited. Production management must also account for the tendency to alternate, which affects the overall regularity of yields.
Operationally, early flowering combined with self-incompatibility makes pollination networks essential, with early flowering pollinators (often associated with Azeradj). Ripening occurs late in the season (December/January), and strong fruit retention can make harvesting more demanding. Within TGoP, this profile reinforces a key narrative: biodiversity as “territorial cooperation” (variety associations, technical choices, climate resilience) rather than simple geographic expansion.
Agronomic and commercial considerations: A cultivar from Grande Kabylia, it has colonized the most difficult slopes. It is a self-incompatible cultivar with early flowering and therefore requires pollinizers with relatively early bloom. The cultivar most commonly used for this purpose is “Azeradj”, which flowers at the same time. It is a vigorous variety with an open growth habit, highly productive but nevertheless affected by alternate bearing. The cultivar has low rooting ability, but it responds well to grafting, even onto oleasters, which probably explains its wide diffusion and the multiplicity of forms. Ripening is late and resistance to fruit detachment is high. The oil produced is of excellent quality, even though the oil yield is low. It is a variety resistant to cold and high temperatures. It is considered moderately tolerant to peacock spot (Cycloconium oleagineum), but it is sensitive to verticillium wilt (Verticillium dahliae) and olive knot (Pseudomonas savastanoi).