From the ashes of failure, a world-changing triumph

"Reij, Garrity and other scientists working on the ground knew what Wade and other political leaders did not: that farmers in Niger and Burkina Faso, in particular, had discovered a cheap, effective way to regreen the Sahel. They did so by using simple water harvesting techniques and protecting trees that emerged naturally on their farms."

Years ago on this blog I argued in defense of Earth's huge human population; I observed that given looming threats to living things and Earth itself, humans needed all the brain power we could get. And I pointed out that there was no telling where great solutions would emerge; they could come from the least likely places and the least among us -- the poorest, the unschooled, those living in 'underdeveloped' regions.  

I remembered my words when I read The Smithsonian Magazine's August 2016 The “Great Green Wall” Didn’t Stop Desertification, but it Evolved Into Something That Might. The title gives no indication of the amazing turnaround wrought by many African small farmers but while the report details their successes, the story seems to have landed in a news media Black Hole. This, despite the fact that it got attention at the United Nations and African Union and of course the World Bank. 

At any rate Jim Morrison's report for the venerable Smithsonian Magazine does the story justice. I invite you to read the whole thing in case you have doubts about the human ability to adapt.  

But is it too little, too late, in this case? 

Well, one should also not doubt the World Bank's ability to muck up a great idea. The farmers' success at land reclamation in the early part of this century happened under the radar (see the report). This meant the Bank didn't know was going on for years.

However, in this era so many specialists outside the Bank are aware of its penchant for overkill that with any luck they will be effective at running interference for the farmers while helping them make the best use of Bank loans.

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