Sibiri Sawadogo is a farmer in the Sahel. He works on his field and grows his crops to feed his family. Conditions in this part of Africa are not easy. Soils are poor and water is scarce. There is no electricity in the villages. He does not use sophisticated tools to cultivate his land. All the work is done by hand. In one hand Sibiri Sawadogo holds a hoe; in his other hand he holds his mobile phone…
Sibiri Sawadogo is an example of an innovative farmer in Burkina Faso. By using very simple but effective techniques, protecting trees, using manure to improve soil fertility and making stone bands to let the rainfall percolate the soil, a number of farmers-innovators have managed to re-green their barren and degraded lands. If more farmers in the region could take advantage of this way of farming, living conditions of more people could be improved, and a re-greening movement could evolve, which could have a real impact on the region…
Until recently, information technologies were not affordable for people like Sibiri Sawadogo, but the world is changing. Mobile telephony has become less expensive, and even affordable for the very poor. The World Wide Web and Mobile Telephony are converging, forming new technologies and opening new opportunities. The Mobile Web could become a new way for farmers to connect to each other and share information…
Last week in Burkina Faso I met many people involved in farming or in supporting small-scale farmers in their re-greening activities. This re-greening has started as a grassroots initiative. It is not a centrally-managed or externally financed project. It is becoming a movement of people and their social networks.
Re-greening in Africa is about knowledge sharing and communication. It is about farmers connecting to farmers. ICTs are carriers of information, and they will hopefully be helpful to accelerate and extend the scale of the re-greening success.
