{{This article was originally posted on December 24, 2016. Having lost and found, it is posted again.}}
While being obssessed with climate change and looking into making applications that could be effective for people to manage climate change in multiple ways, I came across the story of these 2 guys — Jadav “Molai” Payeng from Northern India and Yacouba Sawadogo from Burkina Faso.
Both build forests out of barren lands, showing that it is possible if one tries. SALUTE to both these guys.
Inspired by their example I wanted to learn about how their methodology worked and what we could do in similar lines to create new forests. Also how could we use similar ideas in agriculture for food security.
Article of Jadav — http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/indian-man-single-handedly-plants-a-1360-acre-forest
Article of Yacouba — http://www.odditycentral.com/news/meet-yacouba-sawadogo-the-man-who-stopped-the-desert.html The commonality in both seem to be usage of native plant species, compost and bio material from nearby areas, optimum utilization of rain water and other water sources and working in partnership with nature.
Looking around found that the technique (though age old) is contributed to a Japanese person and is called the Miyawaki Technique.
Based on this technique an Indian company has started a commercial venture called Rapid Forest (www.afforestt.com) and has open sourced all their techniques, tools and methodologies.Shubhendu Sharma, the founder of Rapid Forest, has done a ted talk and ted blog : http:/http://blog.ted.com/shubhendusharma// and http://dirtyclassroom.com/diy-build-your-own-forest-alex-eisenreich/ This lead me to a binge on agriculture, irrigation, local knowledge, etc… that is documented in another blog article.