Local farmers' struggle to restore the Nile by growing food forests

In Kenya, in the Nile basin, farmers in the village of Sitati are developing agroforestry projects to replace the more widespread sugarcane monocultures.The goal is to revitalize the land, diversify diets and incomes and increase the water levels on which many animals depend.This creates "food forests", which attract a series of wild animals - such as the Nubian shell turtle in danger of extinction - and redevelop wetlands and river systems.The technique, in particular, changes the way the community manages agriculture and the environment, predicting the intercropping between different food crops – such as cereals, orchards, vegetables, tubers – and non-productive grasses and trees.For example, a mix of crops such as banana, sweet potato, hibiscus, papaya, avocado, chilli pepper that grow among native wild trees such as the silver oak is common.The result is a bushy-looking vegetable garden that attracts and protects various species of wild animals an ecosystem that is as precious as it is fragile.Suffice it to say that, globally, the extension of natural wetlands has decreased by 35% since 1970 due to uncontrolled agricultural development.

«Food forests, in addition to providing families with a greater variety of foods – he declared Xavier Imondo, supervisor of one of these agroforestry projects – allow rivers and wetlands to recharge with water.Water which, among other things, is also safe because no synthetic chemicals are used."Thanks to their marked resilience, these agricultural plots often grow very well too with the sole addition of composted manure.However, in some areas of western Kenya, where land has become infertile due to the intensive use of synthetic fertilizers over the years, farmers are forced to resort to more elaborate organic fertilizers.To address the legacies of industrial agriculture, farmer Felista Omuronji, for example, has started producing a biofertilizer from food waste.The woman mixes organic waste with molasses, yeast and bran, until she obtains a compost called bokashi.«When I used synthetic fertilizers – explained Omuronji – there weren't even termites on my farm, whereas now many soil microorganisms proliferate.If fertilizers could do this to my soil, imagine what they are doing to the food and environment of the entire region."

In the Nile basin, it is no coincidence that intensive agriculture for the cultivation of sugar cane has already led to the destruction of many habitats due to pollution from chemical fertilizers.The crop, both by its nature and by how it is cultivated, requires constant external nutritional inputs.However, sediments enriched with synthetic fertilizers induce uncontrolled growth of algae and invasive plants which reduces the oxygenation level of the water, in fact, making wetlands and bodies of water uninhabitable.A phenomenon aggravated by deforestation to make way for monocultures, which determines an increase in sediment loads that flow into wetlands.Not to mention that deforestation directly removes and fragments valuable habitats for wildlife.Sugarcane also absorbs large quantities of water, to the point that several wetlands in Kenya and neighboring Uganda they were literally dried up.Overall, its destructive effects on soil and water resources have become increasingly evident.Thus, to cushion the blow of these threats, the most far-sighted communities have therefore opted to follow an alternative path:collaborate with experts in order to restore the biodiversity of the Nile basin without giving up agricultural production.

[by Simone Valeri]