Foundation restores degraded Bauchi land, urges enforcement

The Foundation for Sustainable Smallholder Solutions has called on governments at all levels to enforce existing laws against indiscriminate tree felling.

It also urged development partners and private sector actors to strengthen support for regenerative agriculture to protect the environment and secure the future of the coming generations.

The call was made on Monday during a World Earth Day webinar hosted by the foundation, themed: “Entrenching Resilience through Regenerative Agriculture: A Case Study of the ESTRRA Project.”

The webinar brought together experts and development practitioners to explore practical pathways to tackle climate change, deforestation, degraded soils, and declining agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers in Nigeria.

Speaking during the session, a Senior Agronomist at FSSS, Dr Reuben Solomon, emphasised the urgent need to restore degraded land and enforce environmental regulations.

“Regenerative agriculture is a holistic land management technique that helps heal the soil, enhance biodiversity, and sequester carbon to combat climate change,” he said.

Solomon noted that regenerative agriculture improves soil fertility, boosts biodiversity, enhances water retention, and strengthens resilience against climate shocks.

He warned that indiscriminate tree felling and unsustainable farming practices are accelerating land degradation and desertification in Northern Nigeria.

As a result, the agronomist urged the government to implement and enforce laws against tree felling while investing in policies that promote land restoration and sustainable agriculture.

Also speaking, the Technical Lead at FSSS, Timothy Azakere, explained how the ESTRRA Project is driving the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices among smallholder farmers.

“Many people don’t know that the soil is a living thing. So, all the processes that are employed to keep the soil alive while producing food are the things we are doing,” he said.

Azakere pointed out that the project promotes practical interventions such as fruit forests, mixed farming systems, cover cropping, composting and organic manure use, reduced tillage, mulching, crop rotation, and water retention structures such as earth bunds.

“The soil in the North is mostly, if not completely dead, or almost dead. That is why it is very urgent and important for us to bring life back into the soil,” he added.

He identified key barriers to the adoption of regenerative agriculture among farmers, including low awareness, resistance to change, labour intensity, limited access to finance and inputs, and delayed returns on investment.

“To address these challenges, he said FSSS is leveraging its Farmers’ Hub model as a community-based service delivery and learning platform where farmers can access training, demonstration plots, quality inputs, aggregation services, and extension support,” he said.

Azakere added that the project is deliberately engaging women and youth as critical drivers of adoption by creating opportunities in nursery establishment, fruit forest development, agribusiness services, and climate-smart farming enterprises.

Providing insights from the project’s baseline findings, the monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning manager at FSSS, Philip Ortese, disclosed that the study revealed low productivity driven by degraded soils and climate stress.

“At baseline, we found that over 41 per cent of the land in the project area is completely degraded, while more than 60 per cent is deforested,” he said.

Ortese added that the project adopts an evidence-based approach to ensure interventions are targeted and measurable, with continuous monitoring to improve outcomes.

According to our correspondent, at the close of the webinar, speakers called on governments to enforce environmental laws, incentivise land restoration, and expand extension services. They also urged donors, private sector actors, and farmers to invest in and adopt sustainable practices that restore soil health and build resilience.

The webinar spotlighted the ESTRRA Project—Empowerment of Smallholders to Thrive and Build Climate Resilience through Regenerative Agriculture—a three-year initiative implemented by FSSS with funding support from the Heineken Africa Foundation.

Arewa PUNCH reports that the project is expected to directly reach 14,000 smallholder farmers and over 75,000 indirect beneficiaries across seven local government areas—Gamawa, Giade, Katagum, Jama’are, Zaki, Itas-Gadau and Shira—in Northern Bauchi State.

A key component of the initiative is the restoration of 29,000 hectares of degraded land through interventions such as earth bund construction, fruit forests, and support delivered via the Farmers’ Hub model.