The Sahel: a report on desertification

The Sahel is a semi-arid to arid area of scrubland and desert stretching

primarily across the countries of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia,
covering about 3,053,200 square kilometers. It is the transition between
the Sahara desert and the wetter slightly tropical areas of Africa.
Desertification in the Sahel is progressing at an alarmingly rapid rate, with
2,500 hectares, an area the size of Luxemburg, being desertified each
year. Desertification is the process by which land is turned from semi-arid
scrubland to desert. This is caused by a myriad of reasons, both human
and environmental.
Among the human reasons for desertification in the Sahel are large
population increases in the last years, the extreme poverty of the
inhabitants of the Sahel region, environmentally unsound policies that do
not forbid or actively encourage activities that may lead to desertification,
little education in agricultural policies and techniques for the inhabitants of
the Sahel region, very restricted access to modern technologies, and bad
communications and transport facilities.
There are also environmental or physical factors to consider. Among
these are the long periods of drought and short periods of torrential rain
experienced by the Sahel region, and some climatic change.
The population increase in the Sahel is quite substantial, with a
natural increase of 3.1% per year. This may be caused in part by the high
infant mortality rates and a lack of appropriate education for the
inhabitants of the Sahel region. This growing population puts a pressure on
both land and resources. The people need land to farm, and food must be
supplied for all these people. This has led to overgrazing and to the
expansion of farms. They also have energy requirements, which are
supplied mostly by firewood. This has led to deforestation, and needs must
that the people travel long distances in search of fuel. For example, the
inhabitants of Zinder, a small village, must travel over 200km to find the
necessary wood.
The extreme poverty and low level of education of the inhabitants of
the Sahel region means that they may strip their soil of its minerals and
humus without replacing this. It also means that they have very little
money with which to buy modern technologies that could help reduce this
soil mining. The lack of education means that farmers may not be aware of
all the consequences of their actions and of relatively simple measures
that could help them avoid the negative effects. Many farmers’ policies of
“slash and burn” in order to increase the size of crop fields have been
counter-productive.
Bad irrigation techniques mean that salt is deposited in the soil as
water evaporates. The soil becomes salinated and bad for growing crops
on, eventually ending up infertile. This happens especially quickly in the
Sahel because of the high temperatures, and because the land is often
irrigated by open canal techniques due to a lack of water. The irrigation
techniques are harmful on the long run, but the poverty-stricken Sahelians
cannot afford other more expensive but safer techniques.
The ineffective environmental drylands policies mean that very little
is done to hinder the soil degradation and eventual desertification that are
occurring in the Sahel. Nation-wide policies may disrupt more localised
efforts to help, and policies are often unenforceable, in part because of the
bad communications and transport facilities, but also because of the
extremely limited resources and funds available to government schemes
and enforcement agencies for such things. Conflicting interests and
competition by other areas of government for such funds mean that
environmental and agricultural bodies may not have sufficient funds to
enable them to act effectively. Corruption in the government may also play
a role in stopping aid reaching its intended destination.
The Sahel has suffered from many droughts. The most severe recent
one lasted from 1968 to 1974, but carrying on almost immediately well
into the 1980s. The Sahel suffers from long periods of drought,
interspersed with periods of torrential rainfall which occur mainly in the
months of August and, too a lesser extent, September. These torrential
rains often cause harm to crops and do not benefit the population as much
as could be hoped. The average rainfall in the Sahel ranges from 100 –
600 mm per year, with the lower averages near the Sahara and the higher
averages further to the south, nearer the more tropical areas. Malam
Garba says that rains are lighter and more erratic than before. The daily
showers that used to fall over 25 days in the rainy season have stopped.
The desertification in the Sahel has had numerous effects.
40 years ago Malam Garba, a farmer from Dalli, and his brother used
to own a field and harvest 700 baskets of millet from their field which was
enough to provide a surplus for both their families. Many trees and shrubs
surrounded their fields including edible species. Villagers used dead wood
for firewood. Malam Garba's field is three times larger nowadays, but his
harvest is only 1/7 of what it used to be. This means that he harvests only
4.76 % of what he used to from each square metre of land. Malam Garba
says that 100 years ago villagers hunted wild animals such as antelopes,
monkeys, squirrels, rabbits and elephants. Noumau lives in a village near
Tanout. He says that his grandparents hunted lions, elephants, giraffes,
antelopes and deer. His parents both hunted and farmed, but hunting was
still the predominant activity. Noumau says that nowadays farmers in his
village cultivate millet, irrigate winter cash crops and hunt only very little,
and even then only for deer. The Sahel used to be rich in species, with a
great natural biodiversity.
The soil of much of the Sahel is dry and almost sand-like. It is easily
blown away by the wind, and does not contain much humus. This renders
it nearly infertile. It is also easily washed away during the torrential rains
that the Sahel will occasionally experience. This erosion washes away the
top layer of soil that may contain humus, leaving only the harder, rockier,
soil beneath. However, the predicted next stage that seems to be taking
place in some areas is that as the population density increases land
becomes a more valuable commodity as more profit can be made from the
higher population, and so the land is taken care of more carefully, leading
to higher soil fertilities again.
Plants do not get enough water and may die or cannot regenerate.
This will further thin the vegetation cover that was already sparse because
of deforestation and slash-and-burn, and encourages further
desertification.
As land is desertified it becomes less fertile, and so produces less
food. In bad seasons this causes widespread famines. The food production
is increasing by 2% per year, but this does not keep up with the population
growth of 3.1% per year.
There are conflicts between nomads and settled village dwellers, as
nomads are forced to move their herds north after the first rains of the
season but often have no pastures ready in the north.
There are steps being taken to combat desertification in the Sahel,
most notably by the Eden Foundation, but also by other groups.
The Eden Foundation was set up in 1987 in Dalli, in Nigeria. It helps
2,500 families in 123 villages. The Eden Foundation believes that farmers
should help stop desertification whilst at the same time increasing their
yield. They (the farmers) do this by planting edible perennials among their
crops on their fields. These stabilise the soil, holding it together and so
preventing erosion by the rains. They also shelter the crops and the soil
from the wind, further preventing erosion and increasing the yield. One
farmer in Dalli with shielded crops produced 130 baskets of millet, which
was 3 times as much as his neighbour whose crops were not shielded. The
perennials often have extensive root systems, which are encouraged to
extend even further by the method of planting them by direct seeding, so
planting them directly into the dry earth. This means that they will grow
slowly but be hardier as they will have even more spreading root systems
than normal. The perennials chosen are mostly local shrubs or trees such
as the Ziziphus bush / smallish tree. Eden Foundation trees are meant to
produce fruit once mature. This can either be sold or eaten by the family.
In 1998 the fruit produced per family of the Eden Foundation was worth,
on average, about ₤2, by 2003 this had increased to ₤40. The Eden
Foundation believes in letting farmers replant trees and shrubs around
their own land on their own.
Contour stone bunds trap organic material such as leaves, whilst
allowing water to trickle through. This distributes water evenly over fields
when it rains, and the trapped organic material can be raked across the
fields, eventually turning to humus and so improving the quality of the soil.
10,000 people in more than 500 villages in Mali have been taught this
technique, in these villages, collectively, contour stone bunds have been
used on more than 10,000 hectares of land/fields.
Some villages in the Sahel have set up Naam groups, which aim to
help villages from the inside. Ideas such as the building of stone bunds or
more efficient, simple stone stoves are spread. Naam groups aim to help
by using low-cost technologies that can be used by local people using local
materials. They help build wells or provide cereal banks which sell produce
more cheaply by giving the consumers a means to buy whilst avoiding the
use of market-place traders. They may also help organise village projects
such as saving money for simple water filters or communal poultry.
Whilst all these measures are effective, further afforestation around
villages and especially in the border zone near the Sahara is necessary.
This may also help stop the Sahara advancing. More efficient, better,
farming techniques ought be spread, perhaps via local or initiative groups.
It ought also not be forgotten that flooding in the Sahel can also have
disastrous consequences.