ploughing the desert - 1 (fighting desertification in Sahel)

[hablerz]

@lauraKonsi Lets hope the locals do not allow the soil to be overgrazed by goats in the future.

[lauraKonsi]

@hablerz yeah, that's a good point, we're working on that too, at least trying triggering a discussion among local people on the importance of protecting this fragile ecosystem. OVergrazing is not an easy issue to debate, but they'll need to.

[hablerz]

@lauraKonsi Yea, i can see now that the ploughing is selective and not wholesale , this is allowing water to permeate throught the system much like a swale would.

[hablerz]

@lauraKonsi Yea, i can see now that the ploughing is selective and not wholesale , this is allowing water to permeate throught the system much like a swale would.

[hablerz]

Ploughing dries the soil and kills all the micro - organisms , this will not work long term.

[lauraKonsi]

hello, thx for your interest in the work. What can be seen on the video is only the plouging part. Afterwards, each and every hole (that's a special plough for arid soils, that digs holes in the ground) are sown with seeds of local plants species. Aim of the system (Vallerani system, originates actually from a traditional technique called 'zai') is to recuperate a soil that is actually already dead!

The very poorest soils are choosen for the work, which are all-dried out at the beginnning.

[lauraKonsi]

Whereas on the short and middle term (first fields where sown on 2003) the results are very good. A lot more grass (short term), plants growing (2003 plants are now about 2-3 metres high), and a slowly recuperating ground, where before there was no more life.

We cannot yet say of course what will be the long term effect, but having about 2'000 more hectares covered with plants shouldn't harm.

The local people are very happy and convinced about it.

More to be found at desertoverde.ch

[hablerz]

Ploughing dries the soil and kills all the micro - organisms , this will not work long term.

[EZevan1]

Have you guys heard of the keyline method. what are the benafits of this method over keyline ploughing the area?

[lauraKonsi]

I had a talk with our technicians, it seems the keyline method is used to convey water on ponds, whereas the Vallerani method used here is more about collect collecting and using the water (the make plants grow) on the very spot where it falls.

[lauraKonsi]

the aim is the recovery of degraded land by reforestation.

a similar method is called Zai and it's a technique developed in Burkina Faso, by which for each plant a micro-basin is digged to retain the raining water.

the Vallerani method allows a larger scale work by usage of a tractor and special plough 'Delfino'.

besides plants are not planted, but sown, so that the roots develop first and the plant starts to grow when the roots have found underground water.

[lauraKonsi]

so the main distinctive features of the method are: 1. breaking the soil all over the interested area to be recovered, it makes it receptive both to raining water and to seeds (directly sown or indirectly blown by the wind); the area would be otherwise impermeable, 2. ploughed areas have to be sown, in order to fix them and recover them on a long term, 3. recovered land (fields with grown plants) constitute a barrier on wind and water erosion, and could trigger a process of recovery nearby.

[bmwman87]

Interesting movie. Which country?

[lauraKonsi]

Burkina Faso

[bayfield1985]

So why does the back moulboard keep coming out of the ground, or is that part of the style.

[lauraKonsi]

this is part of the method, the Vallerani System method.

Aim of the game is to bring back to productivity the degradated land.

By its movement, the "Delfino" mouldboard ("dolphin" in Italian) digs rows and rows of holes, that will keep the water of the very short raining season. The holes are sown with local plants, the seeds start germinating just after raining season.

This method actually reproduces the traditional "Zai" method, look for "zai+water+hole" if interested.

[lauraKonsi]

The project has been started by Lindo Grandi, a forester from Ticino, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland.

He came to meet Venanzio Vallerani, decided to form a little group of colleagues and friends, and did a first expedition on 2003.

We try and keep our internet site (see video description for URL) updated with the latest informations on project progress.

Hopefully in the next month(s) fresh news and results will be published.

[mountfields]

please explain...  why plough like this, and what is the plough, thanks.

[lauraKonsi]

our association DesertoVerde (green desert) operates in the Sahelian region of North Burkina Faso, where the soil is becoming more and more arid (due to many factors).

The population is pretty helpless, the main concern is trying and finding ways of keeping on surviving in such an environment.

[lauraKonsi]

Thus, aim of DesertoVerde is to give some help in recovering the vegetation (local plants, acacias and others), as a start to recover the lost environment and allow people to keep on living there.

The method used is called 'Vallerani method' from Italian engineer Venanzio Vallerani (site name is vallerani, domain is com, I can't post URLs :-), who first of all ideated the tractor-with-plough shown in the video, called 'aratro Delfino' (plough Dolphin) due to the movement of the plough itself.

[lauraKonsi]

Actually, engineer Vallerani created also other types of ploughs (eg. 'treno', train), but this Delfino plough is the best one to be used in this kind of arid soil (very hard and rocky), and especially leaves in the ground big holes (which would be hard to dig otherwise!). Those holes will retain the water during the (very short indeed) "raining season" (June to August).

[lauraKonsi]

The retained water is the natural watering for the sowed seeds and .. for the "collateral" grass that starts growing in them (very much appreciated by local cattle).

In fact, after the ploughing, seeds of local plants are sowed in the holes, so that the plants'll grow naturally. Planting them wouldn't work here, 'cause they'd need too much water immediately, whereas plants from seeds will first develop long roots that go deep and search for water, and then start grow the aerial part.

[lauraKonsi]

this was the brief story of DesertoVerde and the Vallerani method.

by the way, where you maybe more interested in the tractor itself and it's technical features? I dont't know the technical details, maybe on Vallerani's site you'll find something, otherwise come back and I'll try and see if I can collect some more information on that.

thanks for visiting, next seeds will be on January 2008, we may post some new videos by then.

[mountfields]

Thanks Laura,, must be wonderfull for those people that this can be done!!!makes you think how lucky we are in England, (we moan if it rains 3 days in a row, thankyou very much, Martin,

[lauraKonsi]

in fact, local people are quite grateful, they came to realize how much such a "simple" method can be effective, they were impressed by the results (to now more than 50% of the holes contain a little growing plant, first ploughing & seed was done in 2003, some plants are higher than 2 meters).

Actually, the people that started the project themselves were well impressed by the progress of the growing.