Tree planting, not felling
Nafi is a farmer in Senegal's Nguer region and a participant in the Senegal Economic and Environmental Enhancement project.
Whereas previously she might have felled trees to plant crops, the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration training she's receiving is teaching Nafi about the importance of preserving the 116 of them she has growing on her 3 hectares of land.
The trees do more than just prevent erosion and improve soil quality. "Having more trees will also attract more rain," Nafi explains. She's also planted 30 Australian acacia trees. "These are useful because they grow quickly and so are a good, renewable source of wood."
Nafi has travelled to Niger to learn about an alternate variety of the jujube fruit tree that has advantages over its Senegalese cousin. Though the Senegalese jujube, also known as the Sahel apple, has exceptionally strong root stock, the Niger jujube fruit are larger.
Nafi brought back and planted some Niger jujube trees and plans to graft them to Senegalese root stock. That way, she'll harvest larger fruit more quickly.