<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/radical-terraces-transforming-hills-of-rwanda/>
"On a sunny afternoon, potato farmers return from the fields in the shadow of
Karisimbi, the tallest volcano in Musanze, a district in North Rwanda. Row upon
row of terraces stretch across the mountainside, and on the beaten earth path
leading to the village of Nyamirongo, vans wait to collect the day’s harvest of
beans, maize, sorghum, cassava and of course, the potatoes for which this
region is known.
“This was a different place in my father’s time,” Zabayo Hategekimana, a
Nyamirongo farmer says. “The slopes were too steep to cultivate and water, and
every year the rains would wash away the good soil, leaving behind stony, arid
dust.” Hategekimana, who grew up watching his father grow barely enough for
their family of seven to subsist on, assumed that this was all their tiny patch
of hilly land could give. Then, in the early 2000s, a terracing technique
introduced 50 years ago by a Belgian missionary and then adopted by the Rwandan
government, transformed his farm — and changed his view.
“With the government’s help, we learned to build radical terraces that sloped
back into the hill,” Hategekimana says. “This way, when it rained, rainwater
first collected on each terrace and did not flow down with enough intensity to
take away the good soil.” Unlike regular bench terraces, which follow the
contour of the slope, the terraces in Hategekimana’s village slope backwards
toward the hill to optimally conserve both soil and water. This is important:
Rwanda, which has the highest population density in Africa (about 525
inhabitants per square kilometer), is a primarily agrarian economy, with 70
percent of its population engaged in farming. Improving agricultural
productivity is critical for food and livelihood security, but the country,
with its fragile soil, steep slopes and intense rainfall patterns, has long
struggled with soil erosion and resultant poor soil quality. Every year, an
estimated 745,000 hectares of agricultural land is eroded, and about six
million metric tons of crop produce lost to soil erosion.
Radical terraces like the ones in Hategekimana’s village were first introduced
by Belgian missionary Cyriel Wieme in the ’70s to combat soil erosion and
create more cultivable land. Wieme founded an agricultural school in Rwanda,
where he developed reverse slope terraces on hillsides that put the brakes on
rainwater flowing downhill, thereby protecting the topsoil and reducing the
incidence of floods. The Rwandan government recognized and began encouraging
this technique immediately, but it was not until 2023 that Rwanda’s National
Strategy for Transformation included a plan to boost agricultural production by
adding 142,000 hectares of radical terraces by the end of 2024."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
