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Home›Sahara desert›Circular gardens of Senegalese plants in the defense of green wall against the desert | The larger image

Circular gardens of Senegalese plants in the defense of green wall against the desert | The larger image

By Christopher J. Jones
August 24, 2021
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Every night Moussa Kamara (see below) works in his bakery baking hundreds of breads, but at sunrise, instead of going home to sleep, he now begins a second backbreaking job – hoeing the earth and s ‘occupy newly sown seeds in a specially designed circular garden.

Jul 12, 2021. Boki Diawe, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Kamara shows a sketch of a garden in Tolou Keur as he addresses reporters as he sits with family members at his home in Boki Diawe.

Kamara, 47, believes the garden will prove to be even more important than the bakery in the future for feeding her extended family, including 25 children, and other residents of Boki Dawe, a Senegalese town near the border with Morocco. Mauritania.

It is part of a project that aims to create hundreds of such gardens – known as “Tolou Keur” in the Senegalese Wolof language – which organizers hope will strengthen food security, reduce regional desertification and initiate thousands of community workers.

Jul 10, 2021. Boki Diawe, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Kamara helps install a water reserve in a newly built Tolou Keur.

“This project is incredibly important,” said Kamara, finally home after a night spent at the bakery followed by 10 hours of growing edible and medicinal plants in the garden.

“When you grow a tree, over 20 years, people and animals will benefit,” said Kamara, whose commitment and hard work has earned him the role of garden keeper.

Jul 12, 2021. Boki Diawe, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Baydi Wague, 11, waters a newly planted tree in Tolou Keur.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY

In contrast, the ‘Tolou Keur’ gardens flourished in the seven months since the start of the project and now number about two dozen, the Senegalese reforestation agency said.

Three months after a garden is completed, its officers begin a series of monthly visits over two years to assess progress.

Jul 12, 2021. Boki Diawe, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Kamara listens to project manager Karine Fakhoury in a newly built Tolou Keur.

The gardens are home to plants and trees resistant to hot, dry climates, including papaya, mango, moringa, and sage. Circular beds allow roots to grow inward, trapping liquids and bacteria and improving water retention and composting.

Project manager Karine Fakhoury said it was important for the local population to feel fully engaged: “This is not an external project, where someone comes from outside and tells people what We have to do. It is something entirely indigenous.

Jul 14, 2021. Linguère, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

A member of a nomadic Fulani tribe sits on a cart as she travels with a caravan through the Barkedji-Dodji forest, which is part of the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and Sahel.

The gardens are in part a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senegal closed its borders early last year in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus, reducing imports and exposing the dependence of rural communities on foreign food and medicines.

This prompted the reforestation agency to look for ways to help villages become more self-sufficient.

Jul 10, 2021. Boki Diawe, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Aly Ndiaye waters trees in a newly built Tolou Keur.

Aly Ndiaye, a Senegalese agricultural engineer based in Brazil who got stuck in Senegal when the borders were closed, stressed the importance of “small gestures that are permanent”.

“A thousand Tolou Keur is already 1.5 million trees,” said Ndiaye, the mastermind behind the design of the circular bed. “So if we start, there is a lot we can do.”

Jul 11, 2021. Walaldi, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Thierno Com, who learned how to build permaculture gardens thanks to the Tolou Keur program, waters a tree in a Tolou Keur in the department of Walalde in Podor.

Not all gardens have succeeded. In the remote village of Walalde, the desert has already started to reclaim the land set aside and there have been problems with the solar powered pump.

Jul 13, 2021. Kanel, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Ibrahima Samba Diop, 75, who is one of the beneficiaries of a garden in Tolou Keur.

But in the eastern town of Kanel, the garden thrives. His keepers solved a water pump problem by digging traditional irrigation canals. A concrete wall and guard dogs help keep rodents away that would eat the lush mint and hibiscus plants inside.

Jul 12, 2021. Boki Diawe, Senegal. Reuters / Zohra Bensemra

Kamara is preparing to plant a tree in a newly built Tolou Keur.

Story

Kamara the baker thinks the gardens could offer another benefit: discouraging sub-Saharan Africans from embarking on long and perilous journeys as illegal migrants in search of a better life in Europe and America.

“The day people realize the full potential of the Great Green Wall, they will stop these dangerous migratory routes where you can lose your life at sea,” he said. “It is better to stay, work the land, cultivate and see what you can earn.”

Photo retouching Marika Kochiashvili; Video production Christophe Van Der Perre, Francesca Lynagh and Lucy Ha; Copywriting Edward McAllister and Gareth Jones, layout Julia Dalrymple

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