Of late, the UN backed Future Policy Council’s 2017 Gold Award was handed out to Tigray State in recognition to its best achievement in restoring barren lands. The best practice of the State has to be scaled up in other places for it promises jobs to the youth, food self sufficiency to communities and food security to the country at large.
‘Collective action’, ‘voluntarism’, and ‘result oriented activities’ are a few of the lessons which should be learned from the people. This statement is not made out of the blue. Late alone the youth in the neighborhood, mothers – carrying their babies on their back–involved in the construction of conservational structures, be it water retention pits, terraces or what have you. The people also dedicate three months a year to voluntary natural resource conservational tasks. As a result, lands which previously were ragged and naked have turned to green and fertile.
The self-speaking achievements, first and foremost, benefited the people of the neighborhoods. They become food self sufficient, the youth starts securing income from beekeeping and other relating agri-businesses. On top of this, the upstream environmental protection activities have prevented soil-erosion while making small streams to revive at downstream. However, the success story has not been confined to the area. It has been, of course, conspicuous enough to be seen by the international community. And the 2017 Gold Award as well as 2012 Equator Prize by UN Development Program (UNDP) can say it all.
The people have practically shown as barren lands can be turned to forest, farm lands and the like.
As the origins of the recurrent droughts are land degradation and desertification, the lessons of Tigray State has to be, therefore, emulated by other States too.
To make this real, all stakeholders should avail ample opportunities so that representatives from various States can witness the restoration works first hand. People who participated in these remarkable jobs also need to get ample platforms to share their experiences. In this regard, the Ministries of Agriculture and Natural Resources as well as Environmental, Forest and Climate Change have greater responsibilities in scaling up the achievements in other parts of the country, this is not to mention State pertinent bureaus which work on agriculture and forestry and the like.
As it is rightly stated in the Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP-II), one of the strategies of boosting agricultural production is scaling up best practices regarding conservational works. Thus, the skills and knowledge that brings the works in Tigray State to success should properly be transferred to other smallholding farmers of the country, particularly in drought prone areas.
No doubt, most lands, which are now barren, used to be fertile and productive few decades ago. But, deforestation, overgrazing, erosion, among others, have brought about huge damages to the lands.
In addition, the ever increasing population pressure has also impacted a lot on the deterioration of previous fertile lands. Due to low awareness of the rural community, the youth and adults alike engage mainly in crop production too. Thus, the youth, therefore, need to observe the practices of Tigrian fellows on ways of increasing income engaging in eco-friendly agricultural business like apiculture and high value commercial crops. The lessons tell us that, the youth can be productive without expanding farmlands.
In a nutshell, the stakeholders mentioned above, the media and other development actors have to join hands to register glittering results like that of Tigray by conserving the natural resources and restoring degraded lands.