How it began
The practice started in Niger in 1983. Tony Rinaudo, an Australian agronomist working in the country, pioneered it in the mid-1980s after running into the failures of tree planting, and it was developed together with farmers in the Maradi region. It is a form of coppicing and pollarding that draws on traditional practices.
Before it existed
In the twenty years before 1980 some 60 million trees were planted in Niger at great cost, and officially only 20 percent survived. Planted seedlings were killed by drought, sand blasting, pests, weeds and livestock. A 1984 study in West Africa put the cost of tree plantations at 18,000 dollars per hectare once failures were counted.
How it works
Farmers select tree stumps that are already resprouting in their fields and choose the tallest and straightest stems on each. They remove the other stems and side branches, protect what remains from livestock, fire and weeds, and prune again from time to time. The trees grow fast because they draw on established root systems. Survival is commonly 90 to 100 percent, and the labor for one hectare in Niger costs about 14 dollars.
How it spread
The method spread from farmer to farmer, mostly without project or government support, at about 250,000 hectares a year. Over 20 years farmers in Niger regenerated 200 million trees. It is now practiced in at least 24 countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Ghana, India, Indonesia and Haiti.
What changed first
In the Aguie district, farmland that was almost treeless in the early 1980s came to carry 103 to 122 trees per hectare, and fuelwood is sold locally and across the border in Nigeria. Farmers in Niger produce an additional 500,000 tons of cereal a year compared with the 1970s and 1980s, and gross income in the Maradi region rose by 17 to 21 million dollars.
Where it stands today
World Vision, the World Agroforestry Centre and the World Resources Institute promote the method in support of the Bonn Challenge and AFR100 land restoration targets. Rinaudo received the Right Livelihood Award, and World Vision has published a manual and an online course.
