Farming on the edge - the struggle to survive as Burkina's climate changes |
For communities living along the southern fringes of the Saharan Desert in the Centre-North region of Burkina Faso, farming is the only way of life.
Temperatures in the high 40s C are common across this Sahelian belt of arid grassland and semi-desert. As a result, the environment is harsh and unforgiving, and the quality of the seasonal rains is often the main factor in determining whether it will be a good or bad year.
Sika village is one such community. A settlement of 170 homes, and a population of around 800, the village is so reliant on the rains that even planned building work is deferred until the rains provide enough water to allow labourers to mix the building mortar.
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 | Villagers in Sika collect their water from five boreholes in the locality. Several of these will dry up during the year however, and none can be guaranteed to supply a year-round drinking supply for the entire community.
In this bone-dry environment, the farming community of Sika plant small green millet, sorghum, beans and maize, and supplement their diet with groundnuts, okra and the fresh green leaves of the baobab tree. Supplementary income and food supply comes from the small numbers of goats, sheep, pigs and poultry that are kept by most households – an insurance policy to be cashed in, if and when the crops fail.
Householders in Sika realise that they live on the edge. |
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Many of the younger men dream of making a living in the gold mines to the north of the country, while others harbour plans to join the million or so migrant workers from Burkina Faso who have moved to find jobs in neighbouring Ivory Coast.
It is against this backdrop that the villagers of Sika have been working with Self Help Africa’s local partners, PER (Association Projet Ecologie et Reboisement), on an initiative designed to increase the fertility of local farmland and help farm families to produce more from the small plots that they cultivate.
Using an ancient ‘zai hole’ technique for restoring fertility and retaining moisture in the soil, the community at Sika have succeeded in reclaiming more than 45 hectares (90 acres) of land since adopting the approach two years ago.
The process requires each farmer to dig hundreds of shallow holes across the land, and to place organic manure, grass cuttings and other crop residues into each.
The zai holes are maintained as small depressions in the ground, and each is then individually planted with crops for the following season, with the rainfall collecting in the small fertilized bowls when it rains.
Sawadogo Lemoussa has two hectares (four acres) of land that she has rehabilitated using zai hole technology, and will plant it with millet, beans, sesame and groundnuts for the following season.
‘Last year I harvested four carts of millet from this fertilized plot. In the past I used to get just one cart from the same piece of ground,’ she says.
In the future Sawadogo hopes to be able to add aubergines to her crops, and says that she will also increase the quantity of sesame that she will plant, as she can earn money by selling this outside of village to people who make cooking oil.
Around the perimeter of her fields, Sawadogo has also constructed a cordon of low stone bunds (walls), which protect the soil and prevent it from being washed away by the torrential seasonal rains.
80-year-old Bari Wedragou, the village chief of Sika, says it is becoming more difficult for their community to live off the land.
He says a growing village population is placing a strain on resources, but adds that the biggest challenge is the increasingly unpredictable weather pattern, which has left farmers in a constant state of uncertainty.
‘Our nearest lake, which is 25 miles from here, used to be more than twice the size that it is today. The weather has changed, and from one year to the next we do not know when the rains will come, and when we will be able to plant,’ he says.
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