Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) has made headlines again and this time in the major international newspaper, the Guardian. Written by Cathy Watson, the article chats another success for Tony Rinaudo, the Australian missionary who pioneered FMNR in the 1980s in Niger and went on to develop the technique. In the drought and hunger ravaged Sahel region, Cathy reports how farmers such as 62 year old Abdou Sall are benefiting from practicing FMNR.
FMNR is the practice of identifying the location of tree sprouts that germinate from hidden tree stumps beneath the ground. Cathy writes “Most indigenous trees in Africa coppice when cut, their stumps looking like tangled weeds and valueless scrub to the unknowing eye. But when the farmer selects the tallest and straightest stems and culls the rest, trees rapidly regrow.”
The interesting thing that surprises everybody about FMNR is that it seems to go against the wisdom that trees compete with crops. However, farmers like Sall of Kaffrine, Senegal, show that FMNR increases yields.
“FMNR has increased millet harvests from 430kg to 750kg a hectare, according to World Vision, which supports 39,000 hectares (96,000 acres) of FMNR in Kaffrine” says Cathy.
At a conference at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi in April, scientists endorsed FMNR. "Fallowing used to take care of fertility, contributing 80-90% of all organic material in soil," said agro-ecologist Roland Bunch. "But today 80% of African farmers have under two hectares and cannot rest their land. Restoring soils with trees is key."
"The best results from FMNR are attained when the farmer regularly prunes any unwanted new stems and side branches as they appear," says Rinaudo. The cuttings provide wood for cooking.
While the capital required to start FMNR is very little, Sall gives a word of warning saying "You have to be courageous."
And World Vision regional food security adviser Claude Nankam thinks FMNR has limits. "We need to go further to conservation agriculture with trees – FMNR with no till farming and more rational use of manure."
