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Photo credits: Let’s go
Irrigating onion fields
West Africa: Can “down-to-earth” innovation prevent famine in the Sahel?
Written by Jerome Bossuet
excerpt
Poor soil means poor farmers
This echoes the conclusion of the Montpellier Panel in its “Something Extraordinary” report that sustainable soil management is urgent because land degradation is a huge burden, especially in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses nearly 3.3% of its agricultural GDP each year due to soil and nutrient loss, an estimated loss of more than 30 kilograms per hectare per year.
Mali’s agricultural policy does not explicitly state that protecting soil fertility is a priority. High population growth (2.9% per year) means that cultivated land is expanding, but this situation cannot continue.
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Inclusive Innovation Platform
Whatever strategy is used to transform and restore soils, it is important to work through farmer organizations. Innovation can come from NGOs, academia, the private sector and farmers themselves.
“Given that soils are the cornerstone of food security, improved rural livelihoods and agricultural development, their protection, restoration and improvement must become a global priority,” said Ramadjita Tabo, Director of the ICRISAT Regional Centre for West and Central Africa and member of the Montpellier Team.
Read the full article: All Africa
Comment by Josef Garvi
“It is precisely because of the soil erosion problem that introducing tractors to agriculture in the Sahel is such a bad idea. Look at any tractor-ploughed field and compare it to the adjacent hand-cultivated land, and you will immediately notice a difference: tractor-ploughed fields usually do not have any perennial vegetation, thus failing to protect their topsoil.
My conclusion is that desertification in the Sahel is currently more anthropogenic than climatic. Since the 90s, rainfall has returned to normal and the potential for growth of trees and shrubs is evident. But on most lands this growth is inhibited by A) poor land management (keeping fields open to grow annual crops), B) overgrazing (in pastoral areas one can see many trees stunted by overgrazing, and in the case of larger trees, grazing animals erode around the trunk, exposing the roots and causing the tree to fall over time), and C) the collection of firewood.”
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