A hope for the Sahelian zones?

[Ahmed]

A recent article in the August "diplomatic world" seems to me of great importance.
You can read a reduced version here: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2010/08/HERTSGAARD/19540

He explains how an illiterate African, Mr. Yacouba Sawadogo, starting from well-known local techniques (such as zaï) and personal reflection has managed to develop a whole agro-forestry system perfectly suited to the very difficult conditions of these countries.
What must be emphasized is that this remarkable approach is completely original compared to the classic transfer of North-South competence.
It is distinguished not only by its indigenous character, but also by its perfectly non-technocratic content, which explains why these innovations are well received by the local population and are enjoying growing success.
Indeed, Mr.Sawadogo does not propose to embark on ruinous and inaccessible tree plantations, but to use those that exist as a basis for the development of his method.
This is in any case what emerges from what I know indirectly, having not personally had access to the full version of this text at the moment. The interest of this information leads me to disseminate it as quickly as possible, especially since a search on the net on this character turns out to be futile ...

[dedeleco]

The ancestral habits of culture have much more justification and long-term effectiveness than we think with our modern, powerful and destructive means.
Hat for this peasant who pushes back the desert !!!
There is also the terra preta in the Amazon on poor land rich with charcoal forgotten method 500 years old !!
With its manure it can be similar, recreating the humus ??

GMOs are becoming a disaster even in the USA which leads to organic, the GMO herbicide killing humus !!
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... &aid=20675

[oiseautempete]

Zaï is an effective method although very painful, but it is a method of survival because it does not allow "to push back the desert", but just to feed people. To recreate an ecosystem, the planting of trees is essential. , in particular to slow down the drying winds and wind erosion ... In Europe, the peasants built low walls and planted hedges for the same reason ...
When with manure: to make manure you must have animals (human manure is in very small quantity and of poor quality (poor and potentially vector of diseases), and it is precisely overgrazing (as well as deforestation for firewood) which destroyed these regions ...

[Ahmed]

Thank you both for these reactions.
I specify to respond to the remarks ofOiseautempete that the hedges or low walls are insufficient here to remedy too violent sunshine: only a culture under vertical shelter (and not lateral) allows it.

With some precautions, the manure obtained from a mixture of plants / human excrement is very suitable. It is also used in Mali (if my memory serves me correctly!), Where masonry towers are used as toilets: when the volume is filled an opening is made at the base and the "product" used as fertilizer.

The use of animal excrement should be encouraged because it is better to collect it than to let it pollute the soil (especially towards water points), knowing that breeding, with the drawbacks that you highlight, is often part of the local culture (like with us the car!).

On deforestation, which is a big problem in many African countries (and other continents ...), I think that one of the great interests of the method of M. Yacouba Sawadogo is precisely to rehabilitate the tree, to make it no longer perceived as an antinomic of the crop (clearing, burning ...) or as a source of immediate profit in the form of charcoal.
On the contrary, transformed into a prerequisite for food production, protected, cared for, nothing prevents then, in a reasonable management approach, from obtaining an income (as the initiator of this revolution does) from the surplus production woody by its transformation into renewable fuel.

[oiseautempete]

Yes for the violent sunshine we agree, it is precisely the interest of Zaï, but when I spoke of hedges and low walls, it is because of the winds which are, in all regions, the enemy of crops food crops because it dries up plants and soils or in layers the stems and causes a strong wind erosion (a type of particularly virulent erosion in the great plains of the USA and China) .Of course in the Sahel, for lack of stones, low walls are difficult to imagine, in simple clay, they would not be durable enough in the face of heavy rains and would therefore require too much maintenance ... but eg. thorny hedges would be just as effective, and would also protect the appetite of wild animals ... at the bottom of the "talweg" we can also consider the digging of retention basins for rainwater, intended for watering of course , deeper than wide to limit evaporation, see even in the shape of a "bottle" which would completely eliminate evaporation (inspired by underground grain silos), but the problem of filling in by the products of erosion arises. would require prior decanting ... not easy ... but there are solutions ...

[Ahmed]

Of course, I agree on the interest of hedges and other windbreaks ...
No way to get a copy of the "Diplomatic World"among newsagents, it is necessary to believe that its reading is more confidential than that of"Our Team";-) ...
Well, it does not matter, I finally managed to read most of the article in question.
It is explained there that these are the seeds contained in the manure brought by Mr. Yacouba Sawadogo which are at the origin of his observations and which led him to the conception of this method of "assisted natural regeneration"or" RNA ".

After all, nothing very surprising in these results: the forest is at the origin of creation and therefore of soil fertility, making it a place instead of fighting it is very logical, but nevertheless involves a kind of mental revolution .