Senegal farmers fight desertification with trees

Regeneration of Senegalese farmland with agroforestry systems is playing a key role in combating desertification, reports humanitarian news service AlertNet.

The article quotes Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, on a visit to KhatreSy village, where the people have pooled their farmlands and allowed trees, mainly African acacia, to regenerate, providing hectares of parkland, or agroforests, which are a barrier against desertification in this semi-arid region.

With more than 7 million hectares of regenerated agroforests in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal, scientists say such initiatives are also vital as a way of mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change which may bring about a drier Sahel region.

“The best possible way of defending against the climate change is to regenerate as many trees as possible to protect the land, raise the yields of the crop, maintain yields and provide other sources of income such as the pods of the Faidherbia tree that they (communities) can sell,” Dr Garrity said.

Read the AltertNet article here.