SELBO (Burkina Faso) - AS AFRICAN policy makers demand compensation for the effects of climate change at a forum in Burkina Faso's capital, the country's farmers fight a daily struggle to halt the advancing Sahara desert.
'Because of the (advancing) dunes many villages have moved,' Boubacar Diallo, a farmer in the village of Selbo, some 280 kilometres to the north of Ouagadougou, explained.
Now the dunes are covered in lush green shrubs which provides a perfect meal for the roaming sheep. The Selbo villagers have managed to stabilize 17 hectares of dunes in just three years.
By planting shrubs in the sand it is no longer swept away and cannot blow into homes or clog up water sources, rare in this landlocked Sahel country.
The dunes are divided up in squares bordered by rows of millet stems, a kind of cereal grass which is an important food source in Africa. This method allows the natural greenery to regenerate is this part of Burkina Faso that only sees rain about twice a year, the official said.
Once the dunes are stabilised like this farmers grow more millet, okra used in local dishes, or grasses that are cut and dried to use as hay in this mainly pastoral region. -- AFP
Sun Oct 11, 2009 1:56 pm