Niger’s Re-greening Revolution

My first case study about water and food will take place in the country of Niger and will look into sustainable farming through agroforestry. Agroforestry has transformed agriculture in Niger because of its drought resilience, and ability to increase crop yields. On top of that this approach is important to note because it is 1) farmer-managed natural regeneration 2) it is easy to implement 3) it brings economic benefits and food security through high crop yields 4) restores degraded land 5) retention of water in soil = less irrigation water needed. 

Niger is a landlocked country in West Africa, made up of 75% desert (Pye-Smith, 2013), where drought and famine have been persistent since the 1960s and has led to crop failures, malnutrition, and deaths (Pye-Smith, 2013). The droughts have been influenced by dramatic deforestation of 5 million hectares in the Maradi and Zinder Regions of Niger (Sendzimir, Reij and Magnuszewski, 2011) due to growing populations and higher demand for firewood (Pye-Smith, 2013). 

Map of Niger 

Now, over 5 million hectares of degraded farmland has been restored, improving water resources and food insecurity in the country. It is considered the largest scale of positive environment-related change in the whole of Africa. 

Satellite picture of Niger's landscape 1975 vs 2003 

The success behind the environmental rehabilitation has been a mixture of increased rainfall (due to planted trees), bottom-up community development involving local people, and changes in the management of resources (Sendzimir, Reij and Magnuszewski, 2011). The changes began when local farmers saw migrant workers not clearing their fields, which resulted in shoots sprouting from underground roots and therefore greater crop yields (Pye-Smith, 2013). Soon the benefits of this technique became apparent and were started to be implemented by most local farmers. The trees have been let to grow naturally on the 5 million hectares of farmland and taken care of/nurtured by local small-scale farmers (Maclean, 2018). 

The main type of trees used in the farming practices in Niger has been Gao trees, which are thriving in Africa because of their resistance to extreme environments. The advantages of the Gao tree are its long root systems, which help to retain water in the soil, and its ability to draw nitrogen from the air, which in return fertilizes the soil (Maclean, 2018). Moreover, Gao tree leaves fall during the rainy season and grow during the dry season, which means crops can be grown under the trees and be protected from the sun (Cook and Grut, 1989). Research has shown that crops such as millet and groundnuts can grow from 500 kg/ha to 900 kg/ha in the presence of Gao trees (Cook and Grut, 1989). 

Gao trees 

The properties of the Gao tree to survive under extreme weather conditions, water retention (especially during drought years), and soil fertility has allowed the crop yields to double in Niger and introduced a new way of farming that is sustainable, low maintenance, and can reduce poverty and hunger. Moreover, the involvement of local small-scale farmers introduces and teaches them new ways to mitigate drought-related issues in agriculture. The success of this transformation in Niger has already been implemented and adopted in other parts of the West-African Sahel. 

However, I must add that one problem remains with the approach of agroforestry - land tenure. In many African countries, including Niger, land ownership remains heavily skewed in many rural areas and many farmers, especially in heavily populated areas, only have small land holdings, which cannot support the adoption of agroforestry. Thus, many farmers work on other landowner's land but do not earn sufficient credit from it. Ibrahim, Adedeji, and Meduna (2019) propose that land tenure systems should be removed by the government and make land available to farmers who are interested and promote training for farmers on the practices of agroforestry.