Plantations around
Timbuktu, Mali.
Located between the Saharan and
the Sahel zone limit, Timbuktu has
clay Soils, its daytime temperatures
reach 50°C, and rainfall approaches
150 Millimeters per year.
Needless to say, agriculture is a
challenge. Belts of fruit trees and
fences create protection and
stabilize dunes. Vegetation can
root itself in small adjacent plots
of lands, a meter wide, where
water is used sparingly. With care
and attention these gardens can
withstand extreme weather conditions,
producing vegetables such
as peas, beans, lentils, green beans,
cabbage, Lettuces for local populations
who otherwise suffer from
a lack of vitamins and Mineral salts.
Such community plantations in the
dunes offer a way of coping with
the advancing sand desert, pushed
by the Harmattan wind from the
Sahara each year, threatening to
bury Timbuktu and its national
heritage. While desertification is a
threat, there are tested, local
practices which can use natural
resources to retard erosion and
provide nourishment at the same
time. |
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