Captain Canopy is back! This time, he’s off to Niger, where he makes millet yields 15-50% higher by providing tree cover to crops.
FA for everyone!
His secret is Faidherbia albida (we’re just going to call it FA). It’s a special tree, native to Africa and the Middle East, and most importantly, it grows backwards. Which is to say that when other crops are shedding leaves, FA is growing, and when other crops are growing, FA is shedding leaves.
When other crops are growing, FA is shedding leaves.
This means two things. One: it’s not competing with food crops, because it’s growing during the dry season and shedding during the rainy season – most crops do the opposite. And two: it drops its leaves when food crops are growing… and its leaves happen to be super rich in nitrogen. Basically, it’s a natural fertilizer, and that’s why a FA canopy is so helpful for crop yields. Like millet.
Millet in Niger
Millet is one of Niger’s staples. Most families survive through subsistence farming, and eat millet daily, if not multiple times a day. But most of these farms rely on rainfall, and drought is common. Millet is somewhat drought resistant, but even then, in a country often at risk of famine and food shortages, you need all the yields you can get. So, by improving millet yields and increasing the chance of a good harvest, planting (FA) trees can also help to prevent hunger and famine.
The magic tree
FA isn’t a new development. Farmers in Niger have actually used it for generations, if not longer. It was so important that a sultan even threatened anyone who cut one down with the death penalty! And it also has many other uses: its bark is commonly used for medicine; its pods and leaves are great livestock food, especially in the dry season; and its wood is used for building materials, fuel, and firewood.
Planting trees can help to prevent hunger and famine, because they dramatically increase crop yields.
As for the crops, critical minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, carbon, and nitrogen are all much higher in soils under FA canopies. So are ammonia and other nitric compounds. Or all in all, everything that crops need to grow.
Basically, FA does everything except fly… oh wait, technically Captain Canopy does that too.
PS: check out Captain Canopy's other adventures here!
- Captain Canopy