This is the story of Yacouba Sawadoo, a farmer from Burkina Faso who transformed one of the aridest areas of the world in a forest and crop land, using simple, affordable, and traditional techniques:
Who is Yacouba Sawadogo?
Yacouba Sawadogo is a farmer from Burkina Faso who became a conservation pioneer by the reintroduction and development of a traditional technic to stop desertification in the Sahel
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the Sahel the biggest and one of the aridest deserts.
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During two years, Yacouba travelled to different parts of the country, meeting the local problems: droughts, poverty, famines…
Yacouba Sawadogo's techniques
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Zai planting pits
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Stone lines
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International Recognition
Right Livelihood Award
Finally, in 2018 he was condecorated with the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel“.
Burkina Faso is a dryland experiencing desertification due to climate change: increase of temperatures, less disponibility of water, floods and soil erosion…
Adaptation
Adaptation to climate change, land sustainable management techniques, based on Soil and Water Conservation (SWC).
Tassa, Zaï. Soil. Sahel.
Dr. Mathieu Ouedraogo
Mathieu Ouédraogo is a senior scientist in the Consultant Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), on a program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which had been helping since the 80′ with the application and developmet of Zaï and stone lines.
Termite soil
Since the 90′ decade, Yacouba and Ouedraogo increased the size of Zaï pits, to increase the conservation of humidity, and introduced organic matter (wood and mature) to support fertilization.
That attracted termites, which facilitated the nutrients availability for plants through poop and dig channels that improve soil structure and helps the storage of water and soil.
In 1992, he created the Réseau MARP Burkina, a Participatory Rural Apprisal (PRA), supported by International Institute for Environment an Development (IIED), for the development and promotion of active methods for the research and participatory planification in Burkina Faso.
In 2019, Mathieu Ouédraogo received the Land for Life Award by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), for “”.
Subsequently, Yacouba opted for the planting of trees in the limits of his crops, where had been forests before, which trees attracted several animals.
That represents a successful adaptation to climate change, a way to reduce rural poverty, and the prevention of conflicts related to resources.
To spread the knowledge, Yacouba organied the “Zai Market Days“: bi-annual meeting of farmers, to share seeds and agriculture technics, which ___a hundred municipalities in the region.
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International recognision
Ouédrago received the Land for Life Award in 2019, by United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and Sawadogo was nouned Champion of the Earth by United Nations for Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 2020.
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More info about soil sustainable management and agricultural participatory approaches are available by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through FAO Learning Academy:
Yacouba has taught tens of thousandds of farmers from Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and Senegal, and transformed more than 3.000.000 hectares into forests, pastures, and agricultural crops.