Yacouba Sawadogo (1946-2023) was a farmer from Burkina Faso that achieved the feat to stop the desertation of the Sahel region, one of the driest places on the Earth.
Without using any heavy machinery or industrial technology, he achieved the historic feat of reversing desertification in the semi-arid Sahel region and creating a vibrant 40-hectare (100-acre) forest out of completely barren land.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a devastating drought swept across the Yatenga province of Burkina Faso. The soil turned hard as cement, crops failed entirely, and thousands of families abandoned their homes for cities.
Sawadogo chose to stay and revive an ancient, forgotten traditional farming technique called Zaï, but he introduced a couple of game-changing innovations:
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Deeper Pits: He dug larger and deeper planting pits into the hard, sun-baked earth during the dry season to capture maximum rainfall.
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Compost and Manure: He filled each pit with organic material to nourish the dry soil before the rains arrived.
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The Termite Ally: The manure attracted termites. These insects dug vast networks of underground tunnels that broke up the crust of the soil, allowing rainwater to penetrate deep into the ground rather than running off or evaporating.
Against all odds, his millet and sorghum crops thrived. Furthermore, tree seeds embedded in the soil began to sprout spontaneously inside the pits. Rather than clearing them out, Sawadogo protected these trees, realizing that their roots retained groundwater and kept the topsoil moist. Thanks to his efforts, the regional water table rose by an impressive 5 meters (16 feet).
Four decades after picking at the barren earth hole by hole, he managed to grow a dense, thriving ecosystem featuring over 60 species of trees and shrubs that now shelters wildlife and provides medicinal plants for his entire community.
In the beginning, his neighbors mocked his work, called him insane, and even burned down part of his growing forest because they felt it went against local traditions.
However, when people saw that Yacouba’s crops were flourishing in the middle of severe droughts while everyone else’s failed, they came to him for help. Sawadogo organized “Zaï markets” and masterclasses to share his techniques with hundreds of villages across the African Sahel completely free of charge. His immense impact earned him the Right Livelihood Award (known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2018 and the UN’s Champions of the Earth award in 2020.
He passed away on December 3, 2023, leaving behind an immortal blueprint for citizen-led grassroots conservation.
In the 1980s, during severe droughts, he started experimentating with zai (tassa in Hausa), an ancient farming technique that consists in digging small pits to collect rainwater. He also started adding organic matter to create fertile micro-environments for seeds and saplings.
He even improved it, increasing the pit sizes to capture more water, added strategic placement of stones to control water flow, combine it with strategic tree planting, and use termites to improve soil structure.
Over decades he transformed 40 hectares of barren land into a thriving forest. Wildlife has returned to the area and underground water levels have risen.
Forêt Bangr-Raaga de Gourga
Surrounding communities have adopted his methods.
The documentary The Man Who Stopped the Desert (2010), directed by Mark Dodd.
Ganó elHe received in 2018 The Right Livelihood Award “for turning barren land into forest and demonstrating how farmers can regenerate their soil with innovative use of indigenous and local knowledge”.
The Right Livelihood Award is an international recognition for people that offer exemplary practical solutions to the most urgents problems in the world. It is considered an alternative to the Nobel Prize, because it covers fields that the Nobel don’t, like human rights, social justice, environmental protection, peace, and sustainable development.
In his late 70s, Sawadogo continued working his land and teaching others.
Sawadogo died in 2023. His legacy remains. You can see it here.