How the Sahara Desert is Regreening Back into an Agriculture Oasis

How the Sahara Desert is Turning into an Agriculture Oasis
The Sahara Desert occupies a generous portion of northern Africa. Its radius is 3,000 kilometres. The Sahara Desert is encircled by the Atlantic Ocean, Atlas Mountains, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and the Sahel. Between moist savannas and the Sahara lies an area known as the Sahel. The Sahara's expansion is threatened by droughts, overgrazing, and land usage in the semiarid Sahel.

Things are quickly becoming worse. The loss of agricultural land exacerbates several social problems, including hunger, poverty, unemployment, forced migration, conflict, and severe weather. Niger has achieved extraordinary agricultural success in the African Sahara, converting deserts into arable land. 2.5 million Nigerians have profited from planting two hundred million trees on five million hectares of land. The average annual rainfall in the US is around 6.5 inches.

The Niger River inspired the name of the landlocked Republic of Niger. The Sahara Desert occupies 80% of the country. Because of the Sahel's poor soil, erratic rainfall patterns, and extended droughts, crops there are challenging to grow. Farmers lost a lot of trees throughout the 1970s and 1980s due to a shortage of cropland and a rise in demand. Wind erosion was a factor in several crop failures. More than 700 million square kilometres of degraded land may be restored in Africa, despite the continent losing four million hectares of forest each year. Farmers may decide to rehabilitate damaged land rather than a clear new forest to accommodate Africa's expanding population.

Rural farming areas benefit socially and economically. Several methods are used to convert this area of the Sahara into a field for agriculture. Keep watching this video with us.
First, we may explain the Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) approach, which promotes the growth of trees and plants from tree stumps, roots, and seeds on degraded soils, such as those used for farming and caring for them once they do. Agroforestry, or growing trees and crops together in this fashion, benefits farmers, crops, the environment, and animals in many ways. In Niger, where FMNR has operated, five million hectares of agriculture that was once treeless are now green once again.

The FMNR method aids in regaining trees and plants from stumps, roots, and seeds found in agriculturally used soils and other degraded soils. After the trees and bushes re-grow, they must be maintained. The soil's fertility and moisture are improved for crops cultivated with them after these new woody plants have taken root in agricultural fields. Agroforestry is the term for this. The news from Niger gave people optimism that a low-tech, low-cost approach would succeed after many years of unsuccessful tree planting initiatives. Researchers discovered that FMNR improved the environment, lifted incomes, and increased grain yields by 30%.
The second is the creation of crops in sub-Saharan desert half-moon holes.

Instead, a breakthrough water-trapping technique has enabled one of sub-Saharan Africa's most hostile regions to flourish. Nigeria has five hundred millimetres of rain per year in the south and two hundred millimetres in the north. Retaining the water in a form that plants may easily utilize is tough. Demi-lunes are a remedy for this issue. Small earthen embankments known as demi-lunes are built by hand akin to a swale. On the bare ground, a semicircle is drawn using an A-frame that has been rotated. Pickaxes are used to pierce the ground's surface, while spades are used to remove the soil. Little earthen bunds (dikes) are built around the semicircle's arc.

The demi-lunes, which have been covered with manure and compost, are seeded inside and outside. Demi-lunes perform best when built on slopes with less than a 2% gradient. The bunds' capacity to retain run-off water helps the demi-lunes when it rains. The percolating water from the reservoir is used for subsurface irrigation. Demi-lunes are used to cultivate sorghum, millet, and animal feed.
Additionally, they could support the growth of nearby trees. They may be created fast and easily maintained with only a few hand tools. In Niger, a few non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are working on demi-lune construction projects and paying their workers with food. Similar water collection practices, such as Zai planting trenches, are used throughout West Africa and other continent regions. Zai pits, smaller than demi-lune pits in size, may be used to grow and maintain trees, shrubs, and subsistence crops.

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[illadeligut]

You left out probably the largest greening technique, regenerative agriculture using livestock. The work the Savory Institute has done there is phenomenal

[cinemaipswich]

As an Australian, I have seen Eucalyptus Gum Trees all over the world. They are the perfect "firewood" tree because they lose their lower branches as they grow, and you get a whole tree to harvest at the end of life. I do not recommend it for all purposes. Seed banking of local plants should have be wide spread, and resist "mono-culture clones". Helper plants and under-story bushes slows wind speed, and creates a cooler ground temperature.

[stardustsyassine]

The sahara is mostly Sand. Sand is not arable. The title is misleading. What is shown in the video are only the semi-aride areas of the sahara which is only a small portion of the whole.

[ronb]

I had to stop watching. The music was too loud to hear the narrator clearly.

[kinky]

You mentioned that there is 700 million square kilometres of degraded land in Africa. Africa is 30 million square kilometres in total!

[b_uppy]

They need tree diversity instead of tree plantations. Tree diversity rebuilds soil faster and enhances water and soil retention. They were cutting the trees too soon at 1:51. A tree canopy is important to prevent the soil from drying too fast. Trees also break up hardpan, which then also increases water holding capacity.

You made an error about US rainfall, the US state with the least rainfall is Nevada with about 9 inches. Did you mean Nigeria?

[arailway]

This is propaganda. All the successful plants shown here
are on the Sahel.
If you want to see what a bad drought year looks like,
check out normally wet East Texas. They are hauling
cattle to market now, in the heat of the summer. Three mile lines going to the auction barn.
The Sahel can easily show the same kinds of problems.
That is why herders in Niger and Nigeria are moving south
into normal crop agricultural areas.

[AhmedAdly]

@1:25 700 million square kilometres????

Africa is 30 million .... where do they get the other 670 from????

[MrApnasangeet]

I really hope this works and the green belt spreads across the whole of Africa, all countries need to start regreening now rather than later

[who]

Give it 12000-13000 years and it will be green again even if we've died out.

[DC]

They have the most sun in the whole world. It's crazy that they don't harness it more for electricity, heat, cooking and greenhouses. They could easily export electricity and run numerous industries with abundant solar power

[PietroSperonidiFenizio]

Interesting, but the music makes it impossible for me to follow it. Sorry

[tyreza]

Only god can turn it green again. Africa is huge huge huge...

[MikeAG]

This is clickbait nonsense. The Sahara is NOT turning into an agricultural oasis. Some small parts of the Sahel and parts of the foothills of the Atlas mountains are being restored. Come back to me when, say, Atar, Chinguetti, Choum or the like are "greened". Niger has the benefit of a massive river running through it, with wetlands and deltas.
And FFS it's not is pronounced SaHELL.

[PacoOtis]

Pitiful that you would have horrible intrusive music, but we tolerated it and wish you the very best!

[brianaucuba]

Great to see a low tech regreening method that everyone can put to use. I have seen some methods that rely on technology too much or require the purchase of special equipment. I hope the people of Niger continue to have great success.

[anisothmen]

Just a note, SAHARA (SaHrā') means desert in arabic, Sahara desert would mean desert desert .
We locals (north Africa ) call it in arabic Al SaHrā' Al kobrā (meaning the great desert, note kobrā is same as cobra in Cobra snake, meaning the great snake ) ...
So the correct name should be the Great Desert

[redreuben]

While The Sahara is being turned green the Amazon is being turned brown. 😞

[DrCorvid]

Southwest Africa too; if you look there closely via Google Earth it has been swaled for agriculture for thousands of square miles and across minor land changes as if it was kinda done by air. Look at the ancient benchlands. That area probably will be green again at some point too, got an idea?

[eiraremejeene]

Narration could be improved and made more dynamic instead of having that constant tone and pace that do not suit well in many parts of the narration. And that background music is just distracting: it's almost the foreground sound.