Turning deserts into an Oasis

 In the African Sahel, a country called Niger bordering the Sahara Desert, the largest desert in the world is stopping desertification and turning its deserts into an Oasis.

Regenerative Agriculture is leading the way with a technique called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration or FMNR. FMNR was pioneered in the 1980s by Tony Rinaudo an Australian Agronomist who is widely known as a forest maker. The innovative technique has been adopted by local farmers through peer-to-peer learning making it cost-effective and easy to implement. Over the last 40 years, the visual results and the data have shown FMNR has been extremely successful in turning desert into farmland. It has regenerated 5 million hectors of degraded land, 200 million trees have been restored, and has benefited 2.5 million people increasing household income by 18-24% the available arable land has doubled since the severe droughts of the 1970s, and tree density has 10x since its all-time low in the 1980s. This is an extraordinary achievement considering Niger only receives on average 6.5 inches of rainfall a year and 80% of the country is considered a desert. The country has been affected by severe droughts and suffered huge land loss over the last decades and as a consequence, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. However, Niger has been turning this around, by turning its deserts into farmland oasis through the technique of FMNR.

Benefits

FMNR can restore degraded farmlands, pastures and forests by increasing the quantity and value of woody vegetation, by increasing biodiversity, and by improving soil structure and fertility through leaf litter and nutrient cycling. The reforestation also retards wind and water erosion; it creates windbreaks that decrease soil moisture evaporation and protects crops and livestock against searing winds and temperatures. Often, dried-up springs reappear and the water table rises towards historic levels; insect-eating predators including insects, spiders and birds return, helping to keep crop pests in check; the trees can be a source of edible berries and nuts; and over time the biodiversity of plant and animal life is increased.^[10] FMNR can be used to combat deforestation and desertification and can also be an important tool in maintaining the integrity and productivity of land that is not yet degraded.

Trials, long-running programs, and anecdotal data indicate that FMNR can at least double crop yields on low fertility soils.^[18] In the Sahel, high numbers of livestock and an eight-month dry season can mean that pastures are completely depleted before the rains commence. However, with the presence of trees, grazing animals can make it through the dry season by feeding on tree leaves and seed pods of some species, at a time when no other fodder is available.^[19] In northeast Ghana, more grass became available with the introduction of FMNR because communities worked together to prevent bush fires from destroying their trees.

Well-designed and executed FMNR projects can act as catalysts to empower communities as they negotiate land ownership or user rights for the trees in their care. This assists with self-organization, and with the development of new agriculture-based micro-enterprises (e.g., selling firewood, timber and handicrafts made from timber or woven grasses).

Conventional approaches to reversing desertification, such as funding tree planting, rarely spread beyond the project boundary once external funding is withdrawn. By comparison, FMNR is cheap, rapid, locally-led and implemented. It uses local skills and resources – the poorest farmers can learn by observation and teach their neighbors. Given an enabling environment, or at least the absence of a 'disabling' environment, FMNR can be done at scale and spread well beyond the original target area without ongoing government or NGO intervention.

World Vision evaluations of FMNR conducted in Senegal and Ghana in 2011 and 2012 found that households practicing FMNR were less vulnerable to extreme weather shocks such as drought and damaging rain and wind storms.

The following table summarises FMNR's benefits which fit the sustainable development model of economic, social, and environmental benefits:

Economic benefits	Social benefits	Environmental benefits
Increased crop yields (often double or triple)	Increased food security and nutrition (including native fruits, nuts and seeds)[9]	Reduced erosion
Increased fodder from edible leaves and seed pods, and in some cases increased pasture growth	Less distance for women and children to travel to collect firewood	Reduced soil-moisture evaporation due to wind breaks shading and mulching
Higher livestock productivity and survival	Community capacity building to deal with local, regional and national governments and regulators	Increased soil fertility
Reduced impact from floods and drought – trees provide alternative income and livelihood sources making impacts less severe and recovery faster	Improved governance through clarification of tree ownership laws and regulations	Improved soil structure through greater quantities of organic matter
Increased income generation through diversification (e.g. timber and fuel wood) and intensification of activities[8]	Education and training in farming and marketing	Increased water infiltration and groundwater recharge
Economic flow-on effects such as employment and greater purchasing capacity	Reduced need for migration by young people and men to cities	Increased biodiversity, environmental restoration and tree cover
Increased economic activity creates opportunities, e.g., development of new business models such as cooperatives	Higher incomes result in better opportunities for medical treatment, children's education, nutrition and clothing, etc.	Enhanced resilience to climate change
	Empowerment for community members to live independently with hope for the future

In practice

FMNR depends on the existence of living tree stumps, tree roots and seeds to be re-vegetated. These can be in crop fields, grazing lands or degraded forests. New stems, which sprout from these stumps and tree roots, can be selected and pruned for improved growth. Sprouting tree stumps and roots may look like shrubs and are often ignored or even slashed by farmers or foresters. However, with the culling of excess stems and by selecting and pruning of the best stems, the re-growth has enormous potential to rapidly grow into trees.

Seemingly treeless fields may contain seeds and living tree stumps and roots which have the ability to sprout new stems and regenerate trees. Even this 'bare' millet field in West Africa contains hundreds of living stumps per hectare which are buried beneath the surface like an underground forest.

Step 1. Do not automatically slash all tree growth, but survey your farm noting how many and what species of trees are present.

Step 2. Select the stumps which will be used for regeneration.

Step 3. Select the best five or so stems and cull unwanted ones. This way, when you want wood you can cut the stem(s) that are needed and leave the rest to continue growing. These remaining stems will increase in size and value each year and will continue to protect the environment and provide other useful materials and services such as fodder, hummus, habitat for useful pest predators, and protection from the wind and sun. Each time one stem is harvested, a younger stem is selected to replace it.

Tag selected stems with a colored rag or paint. Work with the whole community to draw up and agree on laws that will protect the trees being pruned and respect each person's rights. Where possible, include government forestry staff and local authorities in planning and decision-making.

SOURCE-WIKIPEDIA,YOUTUBE