Impact Objectives• Learn about livelihoods and internal logic of local societies
through in-depth fieldwork• Understand how to return the nutrients that have accumulated
in cities back to rural areas for tackling the land degradation

Addressing desertification
through local knowledge
Professor Shuichi Oyama is working closely with collaborators using a multi-disciplinary approach and indepth fieldwork to address the problems with land degradation in central Sahel, West Africa

Professor Shuichi
OyamaIbrahim Mamane

Can you begin by telling us a little about
your research background?
My specialty is area studies. This is acomplex field but, in my case, it is basedon geography, anthropology, ecology,agriculture, sociology and political science.
I have adopted a multi-disciplinary
approach through tackling the problemsof desertification, hunger, poverty, ethnic
conflict and terrorism in central Sahel.
Basically, I stay in rural areas and live withthe people, communicating in the local
Hausa language, helping with farm workand eating what they eat. Through theselong stays, I try to analyse the problems ofdesertification, hunger, poverty and conflictsbetween farmers and herders, as well as
terrorism, from a perspective inside theirsociety.
How do you hope your research will help
overcome some of the issues surrounding
desertification?

The causes of desertification are said
to be population growth, urbanisation,
expansion of farmland, excessive grazing
and excessive harvesting of firewood. In
addition to these five factors, desertificationis also connected to the road networks thathave developed due to globalisation. These
connect rural areas with cities so that rural
people can sell their agricultural products.
In addition, people now need to sell theircrops and livestock for cash to pay for daily
commodities, education and medical care.
Increased desertification is a natural resultof this kind of global economic system.
You are collaborating with local people inyour research. How important is this?
The people of Niger, especially the farmers
and herders, have no discomfort with orresistance to using garbage for greening.
While this project has been opposed bygovernment officials who have studied inFrance, it has moved forward thanks to theunderstanding of many people. I would liketo mention two names in particular. The
first is my research collaborator, Ibrahim
Mamane, a technical officer with Direction
de la Météorologie Nationale du Niger, whofor 18 years has helped put up fences andinstall weather monitoring instruments.
The second is Assoumana Abdou, a local
JICA (Japan International CooperativeAgency) staff who has helped move theproject forward through arrangements withthe governments of Niger, the Niamey city
governor and the Dogondoutchi mayor.
What example of success have you seenfrom a local perspective?
A Fulbe herder named Alou has been myfriend for 20 years. To make a living, hewalks about 20 km every day to graze
farmers’ livestock. When he grazes theanimals near cultivated fields, farmers
sometimes curse or throw rocks at him.
Still, he continues to graze livestock everyday. A long time ago, Alou told me, “I wantto sit in the shade of trees and chat with
my friends while I watch the livestock graze
on grass.” In 2011, we put a fence arounda piece of degraded land 50 m by 50 m,2,500 m2 and put a 4 cm thickness (40 kg/m2) of garbage on it. Every year, about 200
new trees sprout. We thin out the trees we
do not need and leave the ones we do. In2018, after seven years, the trees had grown
and created shade. Alou was able to sit in
the shade of the trees with his friends andwatch goats eat grass. I remembered what
Alou said to me so long ago, and I was gladthat it had come true.

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asked to keep their livestock there at nightfor two weeks.’ This allows the animals todefecate on the land and trees germinate fromthe faeces to create pastoral forests, which inturn provide grazing for the livestock.

Regreening unfertile land
using waste materials,
livestock and natural processes
A team from the Centre for African Area Studies is working with the Niger National Meteorological
Department to solve issues with desertification and land degradation. The findings will help support
farmers and herders, as well as creating a more peaceful societyDesertification is a term denoting thedegradation of land, where the biologicalproductivity is lost for a range of reasons,
including natural processes and humanactivities. These pieces of land change fromfertile to extremely deteriorated and growing
crops becomes increasingly difficult, if notimpossible. As the population in Niger
doubled every 20 years and desertification isa growing problem in countries around theworld.
Semi-arid regions are found in places suchas North America, South America, Australia,
Central Asia, Western China and the Sahelin Africa. These regions also happen to be
the places where much of the food humans
consume is grown, with crops planted andharvested in rural areas and then companies
and farmers selling large quantities ofagricultural and livestock products to thecities for profit. Of course, this means that
any issues with desertification in these areas
have enormous potential impacts for humans
around the world and, as urban populations
continue to grow rapidly, so too does thedemand for food.
Professor Shuichi Oyama, who is based
within the Centre for African Area Studies(CAAS) at Kyoto University in Japan, hasdedicated his career to understanding more
about this. He explains that the arrangement
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between rural residents who grow the foodand city residents who consume the food is
an unequal one. ‘City residents do not return
any nutrients to the land where the crops aregrown, yet their activity contributes to thedegradation and desertification of this land,’he outlines. ‘Moreover, city residents actually
produce significant amounts of nutrients
which could be used, such as urine andorganic waste, yet these forms of nutrientsare discarded without regard for land where
they could be put to better use.’ Ultimately,
this creates an imbalance in which nutrientsare taken away from semi-arid regions,promoting desertification and accumulation
in a developed country.
Clearly, something needs to be done toredress this imbalance and ensure that theprocess of desertification is reversed so thatcrops can be replenished and the future ofcivilisation can be guaranteed by turning
degraded land into the fertile lands they oncewere.
A NOVEL APPROACH
Oyama is part of a team that is focusedon ‘regreening’ land that has undergone
desertification at the same time as helping toclean up cities across the Sahel, West Africa.
His team has taken an innovative approachthat solves several problems at once andinvolves returning organic waste from thecities to degraded land in rural areas.
Rubbish is a growing problem in cities
around the world. In many African cities,
rubbish collection systems are not wellmaintained and waste is scattered around,creating an unsanitary environment. ‘Niamey,
the capital of the Republic of Niger in theSahel belt in West Africa, has an enormous
amount of rubbish due to a non-functioning
collection system,’ points out Oyama. ‘The
seasonal Harmattan winds bring a large
amount of sand into the city, because many
households keep livestock, this rubbish also
includes animal manure and plant residue.
We have made progress in greening thedegraded land by collecting this organic
waste in cities and putting it on degraded
land that has been fenced off.’
In the first year, organic waste is put at
2-4 cm thickness onto the degraded land,
and food crops, such as pearl millet,sorghum, pumpkin, edible calabash andamaranth grows successfully. After harvesting
the crops for people to eat, livestock are
let on to the ground. ‘There is a shortageof land for grazing in the rainy season, due
to increased land use for arable farming,’comments Oyama. ‘Hungry livestock can eat
the grass inside the fence, but even if there isno grass inside the fence, herders are

EVERYBODY BENEFITS
To conduct the research, Oyama and theteam studied the ecological knowledge oflocal farmers in the Sahel of West Africa. To
advance the potential of this branch of thestudy, Oyama set about learning the local
Hausa language and was eventually able tolearn the rhythms of their life, including theirlanguage, customs and work. ‘One of my jobs
was to carry rubbish from households into
the crop fields. This was a mix of livestock
manure, leftover straw, threshed pearl millet
straw, groundnuts shells, cowpea husks,
worn-out clothes, old sandals, old pots,
metal plates and plastic bags. In the towns,
the Hausa word for garbage is ‘shara’, whilein the villages it is called ‘taki’,’ says Oyama.
‘I learned that when taki was added to thefertility of land used to grow crops - there
are also important societal benefits for thelocal areas in which his studies take place.
The ethnic groups in rural Niger include theHausa and Zarma people, who are farmers,
and the Fulbe and Tuareg, who are herders.
The Fulbe and Tuareg raise cattle, goats,
sheep and camels, while the farmers growpearl millet, cowpeas and groundnuts.
‘During the rainy season, more land is used
for farming and there is a lack of grazing landand, as a result, livestock can get hungry atnight and go into farmers’ fields in search ofgrass,’ says Oyama, ‘Inevitably, they end up
eating crops, which has led to serious armed
conflicts between farmers and herders, andsometimes resulted in massive deaths.’

researchers around the world will takeOyama’s lead and help address several
problems simultaneously for the benefit of all
stakeholders. l

Oyama’s work helps to ensure that there isenough grazing land for the livestock, so there
is no need for them to eat crops. Of course,
this reduces incidence of conflict and will help
benefit all the residents of the community.
‘Indeed, it is difficult to think who does not

COLLABORATORS• Ibrahim Mamane (Direction de laMétéorologie Nationale du Niger)• Assoumana Abdou (Japan International
Cooperation Agency, JICA Niger Office)City residents actually produce significant amounts ofnutrients which could be used, such as urine and organic
waste, yet these forms of nutrients are discarded without
regard for land where they could be put to better use
degraded land, the wind would bring sandand termites transform the solid soil layer into
the aggregated soil which is suitable to growcrops.’ His research began in earnest when
he started investigating how fields could betransformed by adding rubbish.

benefit from this research: the cities can rid
their streets of waste, the farmers can use
the waste to replenish land, the herders havebetter grazing lands, the community avoids
conflict, and the world gets enough to eat,’ heenthuses.

Oyama’s research will not just have positive
impacts on food production and ensure theTruly, it can be amazing when a plancomes together and the hope is that other

Project Insights
FUNDING• Japan Society for the Promotion ofScience (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific
Research (KAKENHI #17H04506,#25300011, #20681024)• Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund (K150013)• Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) Grassroot Technical Cooperation
Projects

TEAM MEMBERS• Hitomi Kirikoshi (Department ofGeography, Kokushikan University)• Utako Aoike (Graduate School of Asianand African Area Studies, Kyoto University)
CONTACT DETAILS
Professor Shuichi Oyama
E: oyama.shuichi.3r@kyoto-u.ac.jp
W: (KU) https://kyouindb.iimc.kyoto-u.
ac.jp/e/iK4mK
W: (CAAS) https://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.
ac.jp/eng/enmember/oyama.html
W: (video) https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=73TGIAj_uNg
BIO
Shuichi Oyama is a Professor at the Centerfor African Area Studies, Kyoto University.
He conducted multidisciplinary areastudies in Zambia, Uganda, Niger andDjibouti. His main publications include‘Action research and reverse thinking
for anti-desertification methods‘, inTowards Shared Research: Participatory andIntegrative Approaches in Researching African
Environments (Transcript Publishers 2020).

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