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Photo credits: FAO
FAO’s Action Against Desertification programme is scaling up successful land restoration models in the Sahel
Land restoration in northern Niger has restored productivity to degraded areas, providing economic opportunities in a region where migration is traditional. These efforts are now being expanded to six African countries under FAO’s Action to Combat Desertification programme.
Thirty years later, Mumuni Nuhu returns to his village and everything is gone, the trees, the animals, everything. When he was young, they would chase hares, antelopes, guinea fowl – maybe a little too much.
“The harmattan wind is very strong now. It blows all the nutrients out of the soil,” said the 65-year-old retired civil servant. His community, on the outskirts of the dusty town of Taira in northwestern Niger, is famous for its cattle market, which attracts traders from as far away as Nigeria.
“Is it strange that young people are leaving?” asked Mumuni, wearing a white robe and sitting in the shade of a tree. “We must make the degraded land fertile again,” he said, pointing to the wasteland around him where women were working under the scorching sun. “We must make the degraded land fertile again.”
Travel and see
If you have a reason to stay in the country, don’t leave, says Hassan Gaddo (51), who has just returned to his homeland after a long stint working abroad. He first left in 1984, selling cigarettes in Lagos, working at the port of Cotonou and later in a shoe store in Lomé.
In 2010, Hassan was invited to take a boat to Spain, but he was told that the captain was unaware of the situation. He was worried that he would be thrown off the boat if he was discovered, so he decided not to go.
Being an immigrant worker is hard, Hassan said. You don’t have family. Sometimes you don’t even have a place to sleep. But there are good times. “I go out and see the world,” Hassan said. “Bob Marley said, ‘Go travel.’ If you stay in the same place, you won’t learn anything.”
More than just trees
Today, a truck arrived from the National Forest Seed Centre in Niamey, Niger, loaded with seeds for the communities around Taira, which have been participating in land restoration activities since 2013.
Maman Adda, director of the centre, explains that communities are at the heart of the restoration efforts. The selection of seeds is based on extensive village consultations. Capacity development of village technicians is ongoing. Seed collection is done with the help of the seed centre and the seeds are then planted in village nurseries. Since 2013, five nurseries have been set up around Tela and now produce 100,000 seedlings per year.
Today’s shipment from Niamey includes seeds of shrubs and grasses. “Restoration is more than just planting trees,” says Maman Adda. As fast-growing species, shrubs and grasses produce fruit within a year, and the fodder they produce is essential for livestock feeding in populations that are primarily pastoral or have a mixed agricultural and pastoral lifestyle, and also sells well in Tera’s market.
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