Radio Helps Niger Farmers Bring Life Back to Their Land

This case study describes the use of community radio in Niger to promote farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR), a technique used to restore degraded land by nurturing old tree stumps and roots to improve soil fertility, water availability, and crop yields.

• Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) involves selective pruning, or pollarding, of shoots from old tree stumps and roots to stimulate growth. This process allows roots to pull water from deep underground, which stabilizes nutrient-rich soil and irrigates crops, leading to increased harvests and additional income from selling trimmings as firewood, branches, pods, bark, and fruit.
• To scale restoration efforts, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Forest Services of Niger's Ministry of the Environment used community radio to share the success stories of local farmers. In the Maradi region, a partnership with Radio Zumunci, supported by temporary call stations in the villages of Bakabé and Dan Saga, generated significant interest and high volumes of inquiries from farmers regarding FMNR implementation.
• Niger faces significant land degradation challenges, with 5.5 million people living on severely degraded land and a population projected to reach 35 million by 2030. To combat this, the Ministry of the Environment has committed through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) to restore 3.2 million hectares of degraded land.
• FMNR has seen widespread adoption in Niger since the early 1990s, with at least one million households managing trees on approximately 5 million hectares of cropland.

APA

World Resources Institute (2018). Radio Helps Niger Farmers Bring Life Back to Their Land. https://www.wri.org/insights/radio-helps-niger-farmers-bring-life-back-their-land

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Radio Helps Niger Farmers Bring Life Back to Their Land. 2018. https://www.wri.org/insights/radio-helps-niger-farmers-bring-life-back-their-land.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Radio Helps Niger Farmers Bring Life Back to Their Land |date=7 August 2018 |url=https://www.wri.org/insights/radio-helps-niger-farmers-bring-life-back-their-land |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2018radio, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Radio Helps Niger Farmers Bring Life Back to Their Land}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2018}, month = aug, url = {https://www.wri.org/insights/radio-helps-niger-farmers-bring-life-back-their-land}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }