FAO builds resilience of farming and pastoral communities through mechanized land restoration in Niger

In Niger, farmers and herders lose almost 100,000 hectares of land every year to degradation. This situation limits their scope for productive activity and their hopes of achieving food and nutritional security. Continued land degradation is one of the main causes of cereal and fodder chronic deficit in the country, exposing farming and livestock-raising households to recurrent food crises.

In its role of supporting Niger's efforts to transform towards more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems to improve production, nutrition, the environment and living conditions, leaving no one behind, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its Action Against Desertification (AAD) program, has invested in the restoration of degraded land for agricultural and pastoral purposes, in support of the implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative. This support focuses on land restoration, including land preparation, seeding and planting activities, creating and managing community management committees, management and marketing of products, the equitable distribution of profits from site exploitation, and networking.

In total, FAO has helped to restore and manage over 20,000 hectares spread over 55 sites in the Tillabéri and Tahoua and Dosso regions. Mechanized land preparation is carried out using a Delfino plough with a capacity of over 15 hectares per day. This machine creates half-moons which facilitate rainwater infiltration and can store up to 1,000 liters of water in the soil. This gives plants, trees, shrubs and fodder the best chances of growth and survival in the first months after plantation.

The Delfino tractor-plough unit has become a key tool in the FAO-NAGGW collaboration, as it enables the efficient restoration of large areas of land and substantially reduces the workload compared with manual land preparation work. The Delfino plough was purchased by the FAO and handed over to the National Agency of the Great Green Wall, while maintenance is under FAO responsibility.

On the Awanchalla site in Bagaroua, in the Tahoua region, communities are impressed by the Delfino plough, which has prepared 100 hectares of land in a very short space of time in an area where labour is increasingly scarce. "Our dream has just come true, to see our site restored with this machine. We had abandoned this area for decades because it was unsuitable for farming and livestock breeding. The Delfino's work is impressive, fast and timesaving. These half-moons are much better than those we dig manually", said Bizo Abarchi, a 63-year-old married man with 19 children including 8 daughters, resident of Awanchalla and representative of the village chief.

For Issa Matto, 32, married and father of three, including a daughter, beneficiary of the reclaimed Awanchalla site "with this reclaimed site, my suffering as a migrant is over, this reclaimed site will enable me to settle in the village. Thanks to FAO’s support, we'll be able to produce fodder for sale, a highly profitable activity in our pastoral zone. What's more, we'll benefit from a supply of seedlings of the varieties we've chosen, and we'll be able to nurture them until we can enjoy the fruits and sell them. With this work increasing our growing space, I'm hopeful that my life will soon change for the better".

To ensure the upkeep and lasting benefit of this site, "we intend to give it our best shot. We've already set up the management committee. We've thought through the entire process for successful exploitation, marketing, equitable profit distribution among members, collaboration with the local authorities, conflict prevention and management between the operators and with the local population," asserts Abdoul Moumouni Djimraou, 25, married and father of two, including a daughter.

By promoting the mechanical use of the Delfino plough for the resumption of ploughing of degraded lands on a large scale, thanks to the K4GGWA project supported by the European Union, the FAO is creating favorable conditions to achieve the Great Green Wall in Niger and to build the resilience of agricultural and pastoral communities.