An Australian agronomist is using a centuries-old practice to help turn African deserts into forests.
"It was one of those low points in my life," he says.
He could see their point. "Here they were, often short of food, very, very poor, and here's this crazy white guy coming in and telling them they should be planting trees on their precious farmland." Nigerien farmers typically slashed the small shoots that grew from tree stumps, but Mr Rinaudo realised in that moment these "suckers" offered the answer he was looking for.
First is the use of dormant tree stumps – an "underground forest" – to regenerate land rather than planting seeds or seedlings."All we're doing in FMNR is … selecting the stems we want to grow into full tree stature [and] culling out the excess because there might be 20 or 30 of these stems all competing for the same light and nutrients and water," Mr Rinaudo explains. "You need to reduce that competition.
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