Saving the land

I have stressed, in my previous blogposts the vital nature of the agricultural system in SSA. When it comes agriculture, the system is about more than providing food, it is also about providing livelihoods as it employs over 60% of the active population (World Bank, 2020).

In this blogpost I will take a look at an increasingly worrying challenge that is presenting itself across the African continent: land degradation.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) defines land degradation as “any reduction or loss in the biological or economic productive capacity of the land resource base” (ELD, 2015). Land degradation thus encompasses desertification, and chemical changes that can occur to the soil such as acidification or salinisation.

Land degradation is thus a direct threat to food security and prevents the exploitation of once fertile land.

The extent of land degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is still under debate, however gross estimates indicate that two thirds of Africa are affected by the phenomena (ELD, 2015), and although land degradation is a global issue, Africa remains the most severely affected.

Land degradation can happen naturally, but it is also directly linked to the overexploitation and mismanagement in agricultural practices (Muchena et al. 2005) that is the result of efforts to feed the growing population of SSA (Tully et al. 2015). It is estimated that 80% of land degradation is due to agriculture (IPS, 2018), and this matter is only exacerbated by climate change. 

This next video from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) illustrates this problem and takes a particular look at Senegal and Burkina Faso, where land salinisation is causing a loss of arable land and reducing agricultural output…

Landlocked Burkina Faso is one of the countries most severely affected by desertification. The fertile land is scarce and in some places the soil is "hard as concrete" (Lifegate, 2019), this is because one third of the country's land is degraded (FAO, 2018). Burkina Faso has also been affected by increased and intensified droughts, rain and heatwaves. The country is an example among many across the continent, although it sits at the more extreme end of the spectrum.

Better days may be coming for the country, however, as Yacouba Sawadogo became "the man who stopped the desert" (UN Environment, 2020). Sawadogo became a 2020 UN Champion of the Earth after managing to restore once degraded land in Burkina Faso. By using the traditional farming practice of Zaï, Sawadogo was able to restore 40 hectares of forest.

The practice consists in digging small pits into degraded soils and filling them with organic materials such as manure. In his modifications, Sawadoga used deeper pits and termites which further helped to break the soil. During the rainfall, seeds are then planted into the pits that collect and concentrate the water. Using this method, farmers were able to increase their yield by up to 500% (Roose et al. 1999).

There is hope of saving the land however as there has been, in recent years, a considerable global commitment to reverse and stop the further degradation of land.  Such initiatives include the Bonn Challenge which aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2030 globally, the Africa Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative with the goal of restoring 100 million hectares by 2030, and Regreening Africa that intends to restore a million hectare of agricultural land.

At a continental level, the ‘Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel’ has become Africa’s flagship initiative when it comes to fighting land degradation, and more specifically desertification. The movement, led by the African Union, has now partnered with over 20 African countries, including Senegal and Burkina Faso, where the parts of the wall are meant to be present (GGW).  

The Great Green Wall initiative (source)

Presently, it is estimated that 15% of the wall is underway (GGW), but other sources place the figure at 4% (The Guardian, 2020). So while there is no doubt that there is progress and drive to combat desertification, it is important that these initiatives remain transparent. Building a transnational wall across the continent is sure to be a challenge, but it also appears to be a challenge that must be undertaken, if food security is to be achieved despite water scarcity.

Lastly, I would like to point out that while I do think it is important that efforts are made to rehabilitate degraded land, I also think that agricultural practices need to be made sustainable. These two efforts need to be joined, so as to avoid any possible future land degradation.