By IPS Correspondents
COTONOU, Apr 11 2007 (IPS)

The village of Guié in central Burkina Faso may not have much name recognition in the grand scheme of things. But for more than a decade, this community has been the site of an initiative that provides hope in the fight against desertification.

About a hundred years ago, the area was covered in forest. “The soil, at that time, was fertile. But it was exhausted, little by little, and eventually abandoned,” recounts the internet site of SOS Children (SOS Enfants), a French non-governmental organisation that backs the Zoramb Naagtaba Association (Association Zoramb Naagtaba, or AZN), which is running the Guié initiative.

Consecutive years of drought took a further toll, making the area stony. “Without a covering of fertile soil, the ground became as hard as concrete and the rains, even torrential (rains), were no longer able to soak into it. In this way, the desertification process was set in motion,” adds the site.

But in 1991, AZN decided to set up a pilot farm project in Guié to improve the ruined soils – this as parts of its work in village development, education and agriculture (the name of the grouping means “allied friends” in the local Mossi language).

Small barriers are built in the soil to retain rain water and allow it to seep into the ground instead of draining away. After that, large depressions – also aimed at encouraging water absorption – are dug a distance above the barriers, and planted with hedges of trees or shrubs that ultimately serve as protection against the wind. These plants also provide firewood, fodder, and fruit.

Once this work is done, the ground is covered with straw in the dry season to “maintain the moisture of the soil until it is planted,” indicates the SOS Children site. Openings of 30 to 50 centimetres are created in the covering to enable the soil to be fertilized, with compost.

This technique quickly restores life to the soil; just one season may be needed to bring the ground back to health as it regains its nutrients. Luxuriant plant life reappears, a sign that crops can be grown in the area once again.

As a result, subsistence farmers in Guié now produce crops, breed stock, and even do market gardening, activities that were previously impossible.

“The experiments conducted at the Guié pilot farm show that only large-scale hedge planting can stop the advance of desertification” notes SOS Children, pointing out that this technique has also been used in the northern French region of Normandy, which was formerly “not the fertile region that it is today”.

The results obtained by AZN have caught the attention of farmers from neighbouring villages, who approached the association to learn about its strategies. They now manage their ground themselves, with training from AZN.

By 2006, some 130 hectares had been tackled using AZN’s approach, which can be implemented on a small or large-scale, at minimal cost.

Keeping soils in peak condition is key in Burkina Faso, where agriculture plays a dominant role in the economy. More than 85 percent of the population is involved in farming and stock breeding, which also accounts for close to 70 percent of exports – according to figures from the Action Plan to Fight Against Desertification (Plan d’action national de lutte contre la desertification, PANLCD), adopted in 1999.

Still, desertification remains a threat.

According to the PANLCD, close to 75,000 hectares of land are cleared every year to create new fields for cultivation.

In addition, it notes, Burkina Faso has to cope with “a constant decline in rainfall, endemic drought, destruction of plant cover, reduction in soil fertility, extensive soil erosion, rapid population growth and large numbers of stock animals causing land to be used to its maximum capacity.”

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