Farmers in Niger are nurturing gao trees to drive environmental change in Africa

by bochoh on 8/20/2018, 2:00 PM with 43 comments
  • by myth_drannon on 8/21/2018, 1:47 PM

    Mandatory mention of Kenyan Wangari Maathai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wangari_Maathai She started a grassroots movement of planting millions of trees in Kenya. She received Nobel prize in 2004 for her environmental work in Africa.

  • by vezycash on 8/21/2018, 1:59 PM

    On topic: Researching Gao trees, I learned about Fertilizer Trees.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizer_tree

    Question: Does nitrogen fixing remove the need for adding other soil macro nutrients?

  • by entwife on 8/21/2018, 2:57 PM

    The same principle, using trees to increase soil moisture and water table, applies in California. Redwoods absorb moisture from fog, while the replacement grassland (or Eucalyptus) do not.

  • by wishinghand on 8/21/2018, 3:50 PM

    This reminds me of a startup that does reforestation that I first saw on Hacker News a few years ago: https://fellowsblog.ted.com/how-to-grow-a-forest-really-real...

  • by vram22 on 8/21/2018, 6:51 PM

    I've read that the drumstick tree [1] is a sort of wonder tree [2] too. It is grown a lot in South India, and the pods as well as the leaves are used as food. The pods are commonly added to sambar, a dish made from dal, vegetables and spices.

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera

    [2] By "wonder tree" I mean one with many good uses.

    The neem tree [3] is another.

    [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azadirachta_indica

  • by lbriner on 8/21/2018, 10:25 AM

    I always wonder why we spend 100s of millions on various "aid" programs that miss the most basic ways to improve a struggling country at the agriculture/arboriculture level.

    Also, they need a large mix of trees to avoid the vulnerability of single-species diseases, although this gao tree sounds amazing!

  • by downrightmike on 8/21/2018, 7:20 PM

    Mesquite trees also do this.

  • by rini17 on 8/21/2018, 3:56 PM

    This reliance upon, or even worship, of one species is a disaster waiting to happen. Permaculture would solve this, it strives to create multitude of relationships between many animal and plant species, and unorthodox accomodation to local circumstances /ecosystem. Then whole agriculture would not depend one single type of tree and is more resilient.

    But the unorthodox part is probably where it breaks down, it's much easier for humans to follow "recognized" methods than observe and adapt.