Here is an interesting publication, mentioning some success stories in the combat of desertification and ways to improve sustainable land management :
- “Productivity through a combination of rainwater harvesting practices (such as the use of microcatchments), application of compost or manure to improve soil fertility and planting of drought-tolerant indigenous fruits trees and vegetables.”
- “Drought tolerant trees like Ziziphus mauritania and Moringa stenopetala“
- “Combination of water-harvesting and groundwater-recharging structures”
Read at : Gen News
http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem_print.aspx?name=63511105
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A wide variety of such approaches are being developed and tested under the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) Project, which is being carried out in Argentina and five other developing countries by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
While seeking better ways to monitor and assess land degradation, scientists also point to multiple avenues for enabling rural people to reverse the process through sustainable land management.
In the dry Sudano-Sahelian region of West Africa, for example, ICRISAT researchers have devised an approach called “bioreclamation of degraded lands.” With this approach, associations of about 100 landless women gain access to degraded farmland from village chiefs and then restore it to productivity through a combination of rainwater harvesting practices (such as the use of microcatchments), application of compost or manure to improve soil fertility and planting of drought-tolerant indigenous fruits trees and vegetables.
One especially suitable tree species is the Apple of the Sahel, or Pomme du Sahel in French (Ziziphus mauritania), whose apple-shaped fruit possesses ten times more vitamin C than apples and is also rich in iron, calcium, phosphorous and essential amino acids. Another is the Moringa tree (Moringa stenopetala), whose leaves have seven times more vitamin C than oranges, four times more vitamin A than carrots, four times more calcium than milk (plus double the protein) and three times more potassium than bananas.
Set for widespread adoption, the approach shows “great promise for raising women’s incomes, improving family nutrition and reversing land degradation,” said Dar.
A similar combination of water-harvesting and groundwater-recharging structures, together with planting of hardy trees, has proved effective for recuperating degraded community land in several watersheds of eastern Rajasthan State, India. Increased availability of surface and groundwater has enabled farmers to increase the productivity, profitability and diversity of crop production, leading to a 28 percent increase in per capita income.
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