Land Rehabilitation Methods Based on the Refuse Input:

Local Practices of Hausa Farmers and Application of Indigenous Knowledge in the Sahelian Niger

抄録

In developing methods and land care system in Sahel of Sahel of West Africa, the Hausa farming practice of scattering refuse over the degraded land for improving soil productivity holds promise. When the fields become degraded, the Hausa scatter livestock manure as well as household refuse and sometimes urban refuse over their land. The organic matter improves the soil quality. The author carried out an in situ experiment, using multiple plots scattered with varying amounts of urban refuse over three years, to quantify the soil improvement effect of the refuse scattering practice, which increased termite activity in the soil as well. According to the plant growth observation, the critical amount of urban refuse was at least 20kg/m², approximately 2 cm thick on the ground, for land rehabilitation. The results revealed that the Hausa practice was able to regenerate grassland and to prevent soil erosion and exposure of the sedimentary layer. After two years from refuse input, the plant growth began to deteriorate. In order to maintain plant productivity recovered using urban refuse, it is necessary for continuous input of refuse to compensate for nutrition depletion from the plant remove and soil erosion.