Stopping the Sahara – with just a shovel…
Yacouba Sawadogo (Credit: EKokou / Wikimedia Commons)
Occasionally, I come across such an interesting concept that I think to myself “our readers would just LOVE to hear about that”. This is one such article. So often in Africa (and perhaps the world), solutions to modern-day problems are found in the old ways. Often forgotten and lost (literally) in the sands of time, one man unearthed a traditional farming technique to resurrect the earth.
The mighty Sahara Desert.
But first, let’s explore the problem… The Sahara Desert in North Africa has expanded by about 10% over the past century, growing at fluctuating seasonal rates. Rather than a fast, uniform march, its boundaries shift via multi-year climate cycles and climate change, with specific regional growth reported up to 48 km per year in localized areas. The geographic zone most affected by the expansion of the Sahara Desert is the Sahel, a 4800 km semi-arid transitional belt located directly along the desert’s southern border. The Central Sahel (Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso) faces the most severe combination of climate change and population pressure, with land degradation affecting up to 80% of local farmland.
The wind is one of the prime drivers of desert encroachment.
The expansion of the Sahara Desert is driven by a combination of natural climate cycles and human activities that degrade the surrounding land. Climate change is accelerating land degradation and desertification. Rising temperatures increase evaporation, while shifting weather patterns and an expanding Hadley Cell can reduce rainfall and spread dry air, increasing drought and soil dryness. Natural climate cycles, including variations in Atlantic Ocean temperatures, can influence prolonged droughts by disrupting atmospheric circulation and weakening the West African monsoon. Reduced monsoon rainfall leaves the Sahel drier and more vulnerable to desertification. Human activity can accelerate desertification. Overgrazing and deforestation remove vegetation that protects and stabilises soil, while intensive farming depletes nutrients. Growing populations place further pressure on scarce land and water, worsening environmental degradation.
Consecutive years of failed rains dried up wells and turned arable farmlands into hardpan crusts.
However, human activity can also reverse this damage. Yacouba Sawadogo was a Burkinabé farmer and agronomist who successfully used a traditional farming technique called zaï to restore soils damaged by desertification and drought. He was born in Burkina Faso in 1946. By the time he died on 3 December 2023 (age 77 years), he was known as “the man who stopped the desert”. During the 1980s, Burkina Faso suffered a devastating, prolonged drought across the Sahel that killed livestock, triggered famines, and caused mass migration southward. At the time, Yacouba was in his early 30s. Despite initial mockery from neighbours who called him a “madman”, his undeniable crop yields eventually forced regional farmers to seek his expertise.
An aerial view of the Tahoua region in Niger clearly showing the desertification.
Sawadogo trained thousands of farmers to regenerate degraded land, helping restore tens of thousands of hectares in Burkina Faso and Niger. His zaï techniques conserve rainwater, improve soil fertility and support food security, while trees provide fodder, enrich the soil and create income through activities such as beekeeping. Together, these practices help communities adapt to climate change, reduce poverty and ease pressure on scarce resources.
The ongoing fallout of the drought…
Zaï involves digging small pits during the dry season, filling them with compost or manure, and planting crops such as millet and sorghum. The pits capture precious rainwater, while organic matter improves soil fertility and attracts termites that help loosen compacted soil, allowing water to penetrate deeper and crops to thrive.
Yacouba Sawadogo spread zaï across West Africa through practical, community-led education. From the 1980s, his regular “Zaï Market Days” brought farmers together to share knowledge, seeds and techniques, while peer-to-peer “Zaï Schools” encouraged trained farmers to teach others. NGOs later helped expand the approach across borders, where it was adapted to local conditions in countries including Niger, Mali and Ghana.
How it works. Image created by ChatGPT for this article.
In 2007, the African Union launched the ambitious Great Green Wall, an initiative stretching some 8,000 kilometres from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, across 11 countries of the Sahel. Its original vision was to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, while creating jobs, improving food security and helping communities adapt to a rapidly changing climate. By 2020, official reports estimated that between 18 and 20 million hectares had been restored. But progress has been uneven, hampered by funding shortages, climate extremes, political instability and, not least, the wars and conflicts that have engulfed parts of the region, making restoration work extraordinarily difficult in some of the very places where it is most urgently needed. With renewed efforts, just in Niger, 900,000 hectares of dead desert has been restored with shovels – and half a million people now have food…
The Great Green Wall. Image created by ChatGPT for this article.
There is growing evidence that zaï pits, combined with increased rainfall and large-scale land restoration, are helping replenish groundwater across parts of the Sahel. Field reports record rising water tables and refilling wells, while satellite observations confirm increased terrestrial water storage across the region.
Yacouba Sawadogo’s lifelong dedication eventually earned him the UN’s “Champion of the Earth” title and the Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”), cementing his legacy as “the man who stopped the desert.”
The process… Image created by ChatGPT for this article.
Perhaps the greatest testament to Sawadogo’s work is the Bangre Raaga Forest, which he began creating in the 1980s. Today, this 27-hectare forest is a remarkable island of green in a landscape threatened by desertification, home to more than 90 plant species. What began as one man’s determination to restore degraded land has become a thriving refuge for biodiversity and a powerful demonstration of what is possible when communities work with nature rather than against it…
Jacqui Ikin & The Cross Country Team
INFO BLOCK:
Yacouba Sawadogo’s Legacyhttps://www.facebook.com/reel/3045177125689943
Great Green Wall Initiative
https://www.unccd.int/our-work/ggwi
The Great Green Wall: Africa’s Answer to Desertification | FULL DOCUMENTARY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV3E1MhTjHI
