| Web site | http://www.saharasahelfoods.com |
Of the many unfinished projects left behind, this is one that Sahara Sahel Foods wishes to complete. Arne Victor Garvi's dream was also to make an eco-parc with the trees that remained after the germination tests. The eco-parc is something that we are interested to expand to a major part of the property.
The below photos show the direct seeding zone in 2016, when the property had been bought, and now, in November 2025.
Since 2018, Arne Victor Garvi had been continuing his research on Sahara Sahel Foods’ property in Aroungouza. His goal with this research was to test all the native perennial species of the Zinder region of Niger, and, after 37 years of field experiments, he nearly completed this. He had tested 212 species, of which 185 tests carried out in Aroungouza, and identified 19 remaining species. However, for some, the tests have not yet been thorough enough and they need to be tested again.
While Arne Victor Garvi's work originally focused on species from all dry regions of the world, the conclusion eventually came that exotic species, whilst degrading the ecosystems, are not any better adapted to the Saharo-Sahelian climate than indigenous ones. He therefore switched to working exclusively with native plants.
#native #indigenous #exoticspecies #sahara #sahel #nativeplants #drylands #ecosystem
Arne Victor Garvi was a visionary and an innovator with a large number of ideas and projects. He was very busy with was his research in the direct seeding method for propagating plants. In dry environments, the nursery plants used to regreen areas had a very low survival rate due to limited root development. So Arne Victor pioneered his own methodology, by doing research on germination, collecting seeds and teaching people good sowing methods.
That is where Sahara Sahel Foods comes in, working with the vision that by processing the harvested foods instead of the plants’ genetics, parts typically not considered as very practical to eat become high quality foods, and these wild crops can produce sufficient nutritious products.
#genetics #foodprocessing #plantbreeding #wildcrops #yield #fooddiversity #biodiversity
Faced with the criticism that unbred plants cannot produce sufficient food, Arne Victor Garvi created a concept called Wild Perennial Polyculture. By creating an economy based on this concept, the idea was to prove that people can, in fact, live from these plants, that are nowadays known as Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS).
#lostcrops #polyculture #plantbreeding #foodproduction #wild #perennials
Arne Victor Garvi devised the slogan “Plants that thrive in the desert, will conquer the desert”. He believed that if people can live from their trees and other perennial plants, they will take care of them. These perennials should not be subjected to breeding programs, in order to preserve the wild genetics in the field (rather than just seed banks and vaults).
#desert #plants #perennials #wild #genetics #biodiversity #agroforestry #seedbank
We regret to inform you of the sudden loss of Arne Victor Garvi on the 15th of August, after a short illness. He was one of our co-founders and an important senior advisor. His work started in Tanout 1986, when he crossed the Sahara with his family to settle in Niger. His mission was to regreen the desert with naturally drought-resistant food plants. We intend to carry on the work he began nearly 40 years ago.
"In the Sahel, ‘famine food’ becomes a conservation staple"
The Global Landscapes Forum have published an article on Sahara Sahel Foods' work. Please find it here:
https://thinklandscape.globallandscapesforum.org/72485/what-are-non-timber-forest-products/
#thinklandscape #globallandscapesforum #NWFP #NTFP #wildperennialcrops #faminefood #conservation #hanza
