Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

TURNING BACKTHE DESERTHow Farmers Have TransformedNiger’s Landscapes and LivelihoodsNIGER IS AN UNLIKELY SETTING FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL SUCCESS STORY OF MAJORproportions. The West African state ranks 174th out of 177 countries in the 2007–08 Human Development Indexprepared by the United Nations Development Programme, based on indicators of health, education, andeconomic well-being. Sixty percent of Niger’s people live on less than US$1 per day (UNDP 2007). Four fifths of its territoryfalls within the Sahara desert and cannot support food crops. Yet population pressures are intense, with ruralwomen bearing an average of 7.1 children (INS and Macro International Inc. 2007:xxv). Niger’s farmland and people—nomadic tribes apart—are concentrated in a southern strip of wind-swept savanna that falls within the Sahelianclimatic zone. Rural communities struggle to grow crops in sandy, nutrient poor soils against a backdrop of chronicallylow and erratic rainfall, an ecological challenge that climate change will only intensify (IPCC 2007:444, 447–48).142Yet Niger is also the scene of an unprecedented, farmer-led“re-greening” movement that has reversed desertification andbrought increased crop production, income, food security, andself-reliance to impoverished rural producers. Vast expanses ofsavanna devoid of vegetation in the early 1980s are nowdensely studded by trees, shrubs, and crops. The scale of thechange is truly astonishing, affecting about 5 million ha ofland—about the size of Costa Rica—which amounts to almosthalf of the cultivated land in Niger (Tappan 2007). By 2007,between a quarter and half of all the country’s farmers wereinvolved, and estimates suggest that at least 4.5 million peoplewere reaping the benefits (Reij 2008).The ecological impacts have been dramatic and includereduced erosion and increased soil fertility (Tougiani et al.2008:10). Crop harvests have risen in many areas, enabling ruralhouseholds to enjoy better diets, improved nutrition, higherincomes, and increased capacity to cope with periods of drought(Tougiani et al. 2008:16). In some villages, the soudure—theannual “hungry period” when food supplies are nearlyexhausted—has been shortened or even eliminated (Larwanouet al. 2006:1). Large areas of countryside that a few years agofaced constant shortages of fuelwood and fodder now producesurpluses for sale in nearby markets (Tougiani et al. 2008:13).