Farmers as the backbone for GGW implementation

Under the programme, the NAGGW has been able to establish tree nurseries and orchards of various trees across the participating states.
Because of the participatory nature of the programme and coupled with the fact that the NAGGW does not have enough staff to plant and nurture the trees, farmers associations are incorporated for the planting, watering and transfer of the seedlings.
Community nurseries have been established in 92 communities to decentralise seedling production and distribution, and reduce problems associated with seedling transportation. Each community nursery is fenced, provided with solar powered borehole and can produce 50,000 tree seedlings per annum. It is envisaged that more than 40 per cent of the required seedlings for shelterbelts, woodlots, orchards and agro-forestry would be sourced from the community nurseries.
The community nurseries receive materials and technical support from the GGW programme while the local communities, made up of farmers, contribute labour and management.
Between 2013 and 2014, the federal government established 313km of shelterbelt and procured over three million seedlings for the programme.
Malam Adamu Isa, Chairman of the Gambaki Farmers Association said recently during a visit that the association is happy that its community was one of the beneficiaries from the GGW programme, adding that they are prepared to ensure that the desire of government was achieved.
“We the farmers in this community are so happy to be part of this government programme. It has opened the way for us to make money to train our children, feed our households and also protect our land against desertification. For many years now we have been battling with desert encroachment, sand dunes and poor harvest but this project is assisting us to reverse the situation as we are making money from selling seedlings to government even when the harvest is poor and planting the trees will surely stop the desert someday,” he said.
Another farmer in Gambaki, Adamu Sofo, said that the GGW programme would protect their community from the sufferings associated with desertification.
Sofo said that it was a collective decision of farmers in the community to come out and participate in the programme knowing that it would enhance their economic situation.
In Jama’are LGA of Bauchi State, the farmers are not left out as they too are doing their best to support the programme.
Mr Saidu Wakili, a retired school principal and farmer in Gudu community said that the farmers in the community have set aside a day when they all come out to work on the GGW programme.
“We are aware of the importance of the programme and based on what we have been experiencing in the last few years, we have no choice than to support the programme because it is providing us income and fortifying our community against the scourge of desertification,” he said.
Wakili said that the farmers in the community had been able to plant over 65,000 neem, moringa and cashew seedlings this season and that they are nursing them for possible purchase by government.
In Jigawa State, farmers are in-charge of the regeneration sites where seedlings are planted and later sold to government for onward planting on the designated routes.
The GGW as implemented by the NAGGW is a partnership that supports the effort of local communities in the sustainable management and use of forests, rangelands and other natural resources in dry lands. It also seeks to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as improve food security in the frontline states.
Intensifying the contributions of the farmers would ensure that the 11 frontline states as a whole would be composed of a “mosaic of landscapes” that increases biodiversity and maintains native flora as part of agricultural land. Each participating state will be working toward the overall goal of the programme which includes reducing desertification, diversifying income, increasing crop yield, and improving soil fertility.
While trees and forests are only part of the focus of the Great Green Wall initiative, many in the media have cast the project as solely a tree-planting project and an attempt to halt the southward expansion of the Sahara Desert, but it is much more than just planting a belt of trees across the continent.
Behind the name Great Green Wall, different people see different things. Some saw just a stripe of trees from east to west, but under that look is the natural regeneration managed by farmers which has the potentials of yielding great results.
The NAGGW has instituted awards for students who plant trees and doing such for farmers would not be too much as the success or otherwise of the programme depends on how involved the farmers are.