Foundation restores degraded Bauchi land, urges enforcement

In Nigeria, the Foundation for Sustainable Smallholder Solutions (FSSS) is sounding the alarm on land degradation, urging a robust enforcement of environmental laws and a significant boost in support for regenerative agriculture. This call to action, amplified during a World Earth Day webinar, underscores a critical issue often overshadowed by more immediate concerns: the health of our soil and the future of our agricultural backbone.

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Regenerative agriculture is a holistic land management technique that helps heal the soil, enhance biodiversity, and sequester carbon to combat climate change.

Dr. Reuben Solomon, a Senior Agronomist at FSSS, emphasized the dire need to restore degraded lands, warning that unsustainable practices like indiscriminate tree felling are accelerating desertification, particularly in Northern Nigeria. The webinar, themed "Entrenching Resilience through Regenerative Agriculture: A Case Study of the ESTRRA Project," brought together vital voices to explore practical solutions. Regenerative agriculture, as explained, is not just about farming; it's a holistic approach to land management that revitalizes soil, boosts biodiversity, and crucially, sequesters carbon, offering a potent weapon against climate change.

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Many people don’t know that the soil is a living thing. So, all the processes that are employed to keep the soil alive while producing food are the things we are doing.

The FSSS's ESTRRA Project is actively demonstrating these principles on the ground. Technical Lead Timothy Azakere shared insights into how the project educates farmers, emphasizing that soil is a living entity. Interventions like fruit forests, mixed farming, and organic manure use are being promoted to bring life back to what he described as "mostly, if not completely dead" soil in the North. While international coverage might focus on large-scale climate initiatives, FSSS's work highlights the critical, localized efforts needed to address environmental challenges that directly impact the livelihoods of millions of Nigerian smallholder farmers. Their struggle against low awareness, resistance to change, and financial barriers is a testament to the resilience and importance of these grassroots environmental movements.

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The soil in the North is mostly, if not completely dead, or almost dead. That is why it is very urgent and important for us to bring life back into the soil.