Yacouba Sawadogo

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Yacouba Sawadogo is a farmer from the west African nation of Burkina Faso who has been successfully using traditional farming techniques from the region to restore soils damaged by desertification and drought. The northern portions of Burkina Faso fall in the Sahel Belt, a semi-arid region between the Sahara Desert to the north and tropical savannahs further south. The region periodically suffers from drought. The most recent major drought in occurred during the 1970s, resulting in a famine which killed a great many people. One effect of the drought was widespread desertification. Combined with other factors such as overgrazing, poor land management, and overpopulation, the drought led to a substantial increase in barren land, particularly on slopes, due to the comparative difficulty of cultivating sloping land. Uncultivated, the soil experienced increased erosion and compaction.