Burkinabe farmer wins 'alternative Nobel'

for drought-fighting technique

Nellie Peyton

A farmer from Burkina Faso who popularized an ancient farming technique to

reverse desertification is among the winners of Sweden’s “alternative Nobel prize”,
announced on Monday.

Yacouba Sawadogo shared this year’s award with three Saudi human rights
activists and an Australian agronomist. The 3 million Swedish crown ($341,800)
prize honors people who find solutions to global problems.

Sawadogo is known for turning barren land into forest using “zai” - pits dug in
hardened soil that concentrate water and nutrients, allowing crops to withstand
drought.

The technique has been used to restore thousands of hectares of dry land and in
doing so reduce hunger in Burkina Faso and Niger since he began to teach it in the
1980s, according to the Right Livelihood Award Foundation.

Sawadogo said he hoped he would be able to “use the award for the future”.

“My wish is for people to take my knowledge and share it. This can benefit the
youth of the country,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from his
village in Burkina Faso.

The country dips into a semi-arid zone below the Sahara desert known as the
Sahel, where climate change and land overuse are making it increasingly difficult
to farm, experts say.

“Yacouba Sawadogo vowed to stop the desert – and he made it,” said Ole von
Uexkull, executive director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation.

“If local communities and international experts are ready to learn from his wisdom,
it will be possible to regenerate large areas of degraded land, decrease forced
migration and build peace in the Sahel.”

Last year, erratic rains left nearly a million people in need of food aid across the
country.
Sawadogo initially faced resistance for his unconventional technique, based on an
ancient method that had fallen out of practice. Now “zai” have been adopted by aid
agencies working to prevent hunger in the region.

Sawadogo told his story in a 2010 film called “The Man Who Stopped the Desert”.