Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

In the Tahoua region, northwest of Niamey, Niger, farmers have reclaimed desert areas, and results are amazing. Cereals and legumes have started growing again, many trees have been planted; women, who have been kept away from the fields for years, can once more be owners and men have been able to enlarge their properties.

With hoes and picks, men, women and children dig a hard and bare ground under a burning sun. From dawn until dusk, citizens of Tabalak, a spot in the Tahoua region – 600 km away from Niamey, Niger’s capital, situated in the northeast – work these lands where desert made vegetation disappear. Causes of the deterioration that afflicts cultivable fields are the severe droughts of the 70s and the 80s and desertification due to demographic pressure.

More than one hundred people, organized in groups of seven individuals, are working on the land.

“Each team has to work on a huge project to build anti-erosive quays, made with semi-circular stony cordons, trenches and fixed dunes,” says the 36-year-old foreman Moussa Saâdou.

In 2005, local farmers reclaimed 450 hectares of land and as for 2008 another 300 hectares are predicted to have been snatched from the desert.

“The technique consists in transforming bare and unproductive lands in fertile fields to make agricultural production grow and develop breeding in such a semi-arid area but with a vocation for sheep-breeding,” specifies Abdoulaye Moussa, an agricultural technician.

Fertile again

These works are part of the special program to fight desertification promoted by the President of the Republic and financed by the state of Niger with the help of some International givers. Results are incredible.

In just the space of a few years, the area has changed completely: “Fifteen years ago nothing grew on these lands,” remembers 60-year-old Alhou Moussa.

Now many gummiferous trees have been planted, which are known to be resistant to drought.

Into each quay, fodder plants have been sown.

“No one could have imagined that one day these lands could have become productive. Last year I cultivated sorghum and the harvest was acceptable,” says another farmer, Adboul Wahab.

The value of these fields has grown too. “Once they are reclaimed prices could triplicate too. For two hectares owners ask 450,000 Fcfa – almost 680 euros – instead of the 150,000 Fcfa – 230 euros – they were asking ten years ago,” says Aboucar Sani, an intermediate in land selling.

Some of the farmers who live in the nearby villages help the ones from Tabalak. They work in the yards to reclaim the lands.

According to the Minister of Environment and for the fight against desertification, the annual reclaim of more than 18,000 hectares produce temporary jobs for over 133,000 Nigerians.

“Young people do not feel the need to go to neighbour countries to find a possibility to evaluate its fields,” the-43-years-old farmer Amadou Hassane says.

“We have a double advantage: they earn the money and they will be the owners of productive fields,” adds the head of a tribe from Tabalak.

Women: the first beneficiaries

From 2005 in Tabalak, the renewed lands are hired for free to women, with the aim at fighting female unemployment.

“The fact that they took part in the reclaim gave women a dignity they did not have in the past,” a militant for women’s rights says.

After decades, they cultivate millet, sorghum, niebé – an African bean – and sweet potatoes. Women were normally banned from cultivable fields, as it was considered a work for men.

“Our victory over desert and deteriorated lands offered to female farmers the hope to supply their needs,” concludes an agro forestry agent of the Minister for agricultural development.

By Souleymane Saddi Maazou – Syfia