Fertilizer trees are helping to restore and enrich agricultural lands in Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo.

An article in Spore, the magazine of The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) outlines how Acacia albida is well-known in the Sahel for its ability to increase soil organic matter, nitrogen content and water holding capacity, as well as promoting valuable microbiological activity.

Other fertilizer tree species are also grown in agroforestry systems in Burkina Faso, Senegal and Togo – such as Albizia saman (rain tree) or Albizia chevalieri – to improve soil quality and therefore yields.

In south-western Togo, the French association for the promotion of fertiliser trees and agroforestry, L’Association pour la promotion des arbres fertilitaires et l'agroforesterie (APAF), has supported the establishment of more than 29,000 agroforestry fields. Yields have been shown to increase by 30% since 1996 as a result of fertilizer trees.

“Agroforestry is now reviving thanks to APAF,” says the article.

Read the full story: Fertiliser trees restore impoverished land