Farmers have dug small pits into the sunbaked soil for centuries and filled them with organic matter for their plants. Farmers have dug small pits into the sunbaked soil for centuries and filled them with organic matter for their plants. Reporting by Thiam Ndiaga and Yvonne BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. REUTERS/Thiam Ndiaga 1 2 3 4"This forest that you see today was really a desert - there was not even the shade of a single tree here," he says, sunlight dappling his face through the canopy above. The adoption of zai and similar soil and water conservation methods across the West African nation over the past 30 years has improved food security, groundwater levels, tree cover and biodiversity, according to a 2018 study in the journal Sustainability.
Journalists were included in the study.
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Journalists were included in the study .
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