Headline, February 09 2022/ ''' '' TWELVE AFRICAN NATIONS '' ''' : ECONOMICS

''' '' TWELVE AFRICAN 

NATIONS '' ''' : ECONOMICS

IN NIGER - CAN WE TURN A DESERT INTO A FOREST? After years of planting trees, farmers in the vast country have begun to see results.

IN THE LAST DECADE - MILLIONS OF AFRICANS IN THE SAHEL, a region of semiarid land that stretches thousands of miles below the Sahara, have been displaced by violence and food and economic insecurity.

Climate change is partly to blame - droughts and floods are growing longer and more frequent. But surging population growth, deforestation and overgrazing have also contributed to denuding much of the land.

In the mid-2000s, African leaders envisioned creating huge swath of green that could help combat desertification and land degradation. The project called The Great Green Wall, began in 2007 with the aim of planting a nine-mile-wide-belt of trees and shrubs that would extend from the coast of Senegal on the Atlantic to Djibouti on the Horn of Africa.

These newly forested areas could create seasonal jobs, help farmer's feed their families and offer a way to fight climate change by capturing carbon dioxide in plants.

The World Bank and the Global Environmental facility, in partnership with 12 African nations have poured over $1 billion into this endeavour, and the initiative's scope has grown to include efforts to fight poverty, reduce inequality and build climate resilient infrastructure.

In ecological terms, the program has been a huge success. As of 2020, nearly 400,000 hectares [ 990,000 acres ] of land has been restored to arability in Niger alone, according to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification.

After years of planting trees and experimenting with methods to capture water, farmers in Niger have begun to see results - soil health has improved, and crops are growing again. In 2019, we visited the country to see how the program's ambition translated in a country where most people depend on the land for their livelihood.

''Nine years ago, the land was a duster,'' said Nomao Alkali, a farmer in Fada, a village about 130 miles southeast of Niamey, the capital of Niger. ''If you put seeds in the ground, you would almost have nothing, the soil was so poor.''

Mr. Aikali hoped the program could help transform his father's acres of red rock desert to fertile land. Indeed, in addition to acacia trees, the property now supports millet, peanuts, beans and sesame crops. 

But it's worth noting that too often land restoration efforts mainly benefit men like Mr. Aikali, who have access to large tracts and can take a gamble on a program that may seem mystifying or threatening to others.

In a society where land often lies in the hands of elders, young men must wait their turns to profit from tree-planting efforts. Given population growth, there may not be much left to go around. When faced with this reality, many young men, like Bahari Salisu in Nigeria, decide to leave.

At 17, Salisu left his 15 brothers and sisters and his village, in Gamji, to sell newspapers on the streets of the northern city of Damaturu. When he returns to help on the family farm, it's only temporary.

''I came back home to help plant as the rainy season starts. If I finish the work here on my family's farm, I will go back. We are jobless,'' he told us.

Cash for work programs used for planting trees put money directly into the pockets of poor farmers during lean seasons, giving them a safety net. But cultural norms can often exclude groups from these programs.

Women need formal permission from their husbands to participate. Some women are not allowed to work alongside men in the fields. Others are forced to fend for themselves because their husbands and children left to find work elsewhere.

The newly planted trees and crops can also disrupt traditional land use agreements between farmers and pastoralists. About 50 million people in the Sahel depend on raising livestock. But as more of the land becomes usable for crops, less of it is available to pastoralists.

Salle Ibrahim's family has grazed animals in Gamji since long before he was born. Now he has to keep a close eye on his goats and sheep to make sure they didn't eat the ever encroaching millet crops.

His way of life is ''nearly finished because farmers have taken almost all of the land that was once reserved for grazing,'' Mr. Ibrahim said.

The news from the recent climate change summit in Glasgow was encouraging. Pledges were made to continue funding the expansion of the Great Green Wall. Still figuring out how to balance the needs of different people is the key if the program is to succeed.

The initiative must also propose alternative income-generating options to ensure equity. It could expand programs that frain women to nurture the saplings that are the building blocks of the wall, and create agribusiness opportunities that allow young people more mobility.

The honor and serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Niger and African countries and Economics, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors Raul Roman, Lauren Kelly, Rafe H Andrews and Nick Parisse.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders of all the African nations, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - for every subject in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - E-!WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

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