Résumé
Access to land for the young generation of farmers is hardly taken into account in the debates concerning agriculture sustainability in Southern countries. In these countries, where the population is often very young, procedures for transfer of agricultural assets are frequently absent and generally ineffective when they exist. We show in this article, through the study of three irrigated situations in Tunisia, that measures to transfer lands to a young generation of farmers operate informally through indirect farming. We analyze the role of indirect farming in creating flexibility in local land use systems and discuss the sustainability of the resulting dynamics. We finally discuss the major challenge for policy makers in Tunisia and North Africa to include informal agriculture in policy making to provide more sustainable perspectives. Better knowledge about the role of indirect farming in providing flexibility to local land use and agrarian systems can provide ideas for a better use of land and water resources, which are contested in Tunisia and elsewhere in North Africa.