In Niger, about half of the population threatens the famine in Chad, the safety limit is exceeded. Soaring prices, drought, reduction of international aid be partly explained by the current disaster. However, new farming techniques have turned some areas into semi-desert lands more productive. Limited experience, but to be followed carefully.
In Burkina Faso, West Africa. The sun sets at the end of another day of oppressive heat. But here, the holding of Yacouba Sawadogo, the air is much fresher. Accept on his shoulder, that farmer gray-bearded wanders the woods and fields with the ease of a much younger man. Sawadogo, who can not read or write, however, is a pioneer in the field of agroforesteria , a method based on the integration of trees in the agricultural production system. This technique, which in recent years has transformed the western Sahel, is one of the most promising examples of how poor people can only cope with climate change.
Dressed in a brown cotton tunic and wearing a white skullcap, Sawadogo sits under the acacia and jujube protecting an enclosure where they are locked twenty Pharaoh. Most of this company twenty acres, quite a few for the local type, belongs to his family for generations, but that was abandoned after the devastating drought of 1972-1984, a reduction of 20% of the average annual rainfall, which was then zeroed in food production Sahel, transforming vast tracts of desert and savannah in causing hundreds of thousands died of famine.
"The people she found herself in a situation so catastrophic that he had to change our way of thinking," says Sawodogo. He himself has reintroduced a technique used for centuries by local farmers, the zai , which is to dig 'planting hole, "that is shallow pits that concentrate the rare rains to the roots of crops. To capture a larger amount of water run-off, has expanded its. But the most important innovation was to add the manure during the dry season, a technique that other farmers considered a waste.
concentrating water and fertilizer in the planting hole, increased crop yields. But he had not expected the most important result: between the grooves of millet and sorghum have sprouted trees, born from seeds contained in manure. After several seasons, the trees, which now measured several feet in height (1), have helped to increase crop yields and to fertilize the soil: "Since I use this technique to rehabilitate degraded land, my family is protected from food insecurity, in good as in bad years. " The
agroforesteria developed by Sawadogo has already gained broad areas in Burkina Faso and also in the nearby Niger and Mali, and has turned hundreds of thousands of hectares in semi-desert lands more productive .
"It is certainly a positive ecological upheaval, the greatest in the Sahel, and perhaps the whole of Africa," says Chris Reiji, a Dutch geographer who has worked for thirty years in the region.
In technical terms this method is called "assisted natural regeneration (RNA). Scientific studies confirm the multiple benefits of the introduction of trees in local food crops: protecting young seedlings from wind and help to maintain soil moisture, while their shade protects crops from the heat. The fallen leaves act as mulch (crop protection technique used to accelerate the growth ndt), thus increasing soil fertility and provide fodder for livestock. In case of famine, you can also feed the leaves of some trees.
"In the past, farmers were sometimes forced to sow the fields four or five times because the wind was carrying away the seeds - says Reijo, which calls for the RNA with the zeal of a missionary. The trees are a shield and protect the soil, sow now just once . "The zai and other techniques for collecting water runoff have also helped to replenish the groundwater.
"In the '80s, the groundwater level dropped by about one meter per year - remember Reiji. Since the RNA are given and the techniques of water collection has increased by five meters despite population growth. "In some areas, it has come to seventeen meters increase. Some studies confirm similar effects replenishment in Niger.
Over time, Sawadogo has become a fan of trees. His company now looks more like a forest than a cultivated land. "In the beginning, mixed trees and crops - he says. But in the end I preferred the trees because they offer other advantages. "They can be exploited, the branches can be cut and sold each year, not to mention that their beneficial effects on soil facilitate the growth of new trees:" The more trees you have , the greater the gain. "By increasing its forest park, Sawadogo has been able to sell firewood, furniture and construction. The trees also come in traditional medicine, which is a big advantage in a region where modern medical care are rare and expensive. These farmers, it should be clear, do not plant trees, such as Wangari Maathai, Nobel Laureate and activist, and his movement Ceinture concerns [green belt] were asked to do the people of Kenya: for them this would be too costly and risky. They just manage and protect those that grow naturally. Studies of the western Sahel say that 80% of trees dying after one or two years. On the contrary, the trees that grow naturally are endemic and therefore more resistant. And, of course, do not cost anything.
Also in Mali, the trees grow a bit 'everywhere in between crops. In Sokur poor village, the houses are made of branches covered with mud, there are no water or electricity, children are dirty and torn clothes, and many of them in the belly swollen complaint malnutrition. Yet to hear the people, the Life gets better, largely thanks to the trees.
Oumar Guindo owns six acres on which they grow millet and sorghum.
Ten years ago, has accepted the advice of eco Sahel, an organization that promotes the Anglo-Malian agroforesteria. His land is now covered with trees, one every five meters, and water resources have increased. Come back to the village, shows the rectangular barns, such as houses, are made of wooden frames covered with mud.
All contain large commissions millet: food safety is guaranteed until the next harvest and beyond. "First - says a farmer - most families had only one barn.
Now, I have three or four, even if their land was not increased.
We also have more cattle. "To achieve such a result even the governments, for their part, have made important decisions. Salif Guindo (no relation to Oumar), a Malian farmer of the village of Ende, tells how the villagers have resurrected an old association of farmers, called Barahogon, who for generations had encouraged the management of the trees, until the wood is not cut became illegal and the association was abandoned. The French colonial government initially declared that all the trees were owned by the state, which allowed him to sell the logging rights to loggers. The situation remained virtually unchanged even after independence. The peasants who were surprised to prune or cut trees were punished. Consequently, the shoots were uprooted in order to avoid further trouble. The persistence of these practices for several generations has stripped the soil making it more dry.
early 90s, the government of Mali, perhaps alarmed by the fact that some farmers were angered by the mistreatment of the agents killed forest, passed a law that gave farmers the ownership of the trees that were on their lands . Interested parties are aware of the law only when eco Sahel organized an information campaign.
Since then, the RNA has spread quickly. In Niger, says Toni Rinaudo, an agronomist and an Australian missionary, was fully initiated only after the authorities have suspended the regulations which prohibited the killing of the trees because farmers do grow trees, we must also have the right to cut them. ..
"Millennium Villages" price out the same pattern is found throughout the Western Sahel: the RNA has spread mainly by contagion from farmer to farmer and from village to village, as people saw the results with the own eyes. Thanks all'agroforesteria, is it possible to distinguish on satellite photos analyzed by the Institute U.S. Geological Survey (U.S. Geological Survey) the border between Niger and Nigeria. From the Niger, one sees an abundant forest cover, from Nigeria, where the large tree planting projects have failed disastrously, the soil is almost bare.
When they saw these images, in 2008, the same promoters of the RNA, as Reiji and Rinaudo, had a shock: they never imagined that so many farmers have made to grow all those trees.
Combining the highlighted data from satellite images and the results of field investigations, Reijo believes that only in Niger, farmers have grown two hundred million trees and rehabilitated about 3,125 km square of degraded land. The
recent data seem to show that the regions south of the country who practice agroforesteria are those that better withstand the current drought. Reijo stresses that the trees also provide a weapon to deal with economic: in 2005, during a previous drought, wood cut and sold has allowed farmers to raise money to buy grain. The RNA, which is based on a knowledge free, contains no dependence on external aid. For this, Reiji explains, is very different from the development model of the "millennium villages" being promoted by Jeffrey Sachs, the influential director of the Columbia University Earth.
The project provides those villages that are considered packages necessary for the development of integrated services: modern seeds and fertilizers, wells for clean water, clinics. "This vision of a solution to hunger in Africa is seductive - Reiji says. The problem is that it does not work. The Millennium Villages project requires a large investment in each village, as well as an external aid for several years, and this is not a sustainable solution. It is hard to believe that the outside world will provide the billions of dollars needed to create dozens of "Millennium Villages" in Africa. "In fact, foreign aid has been exhausted after the financial crisis of 2008.
The external actors have a role, however: they can finance at a very low cost, sharing information that, originally, has allowed the RNA to spread so effectively in the western Sahel. If farmers were the first to move to illustrate the benefits to others in their own terms, however, have received crucial help from a small group of activists and NGOs, which Rinaudo and Reiji, or eco Sahel. These are hoping to spread the RNA in other African countries thanks to the 'greening initiatives in Africa, "says Reijo, who talked about the idea with the president of Ethiopia. But there are still essential measures to combat global warming, which makes the Sahel a place so inhospitable. Because each form of adaptation has its limitations: if not reduced the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, rising temperatures will eventually be right most ingenious solutions.
MARK HERTSGAARD \u200b\u200b
Journalist, The Nation, New York. A version of this article was published in The Nation, New York, November 19, 2009.
(Translated by GP)
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