This episode first aired 5 June 2022.

What does it take to re-green a desert? As it turns out, sometimes what you need is already in the ground right under your feet. Tony Rinaudo went to Niger as an agriculturalist and missionary and – almost by accident – began a regeneration practice now used across the world. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, or FMNR, cultivates the shoots of tree stumps that remain after land clearing.

Tony Rinaudo is an agronomist originally from Myrtleford in Victoria who developed Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) while on mission in Niger in the early 1980s. He is now the Principal Climate Action Advisor with World Vision Australia.

Ruth Jerotich is a farmer in the Baringo region of Kenya. She began practicing Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration on her family’s land five years ago and has become an FMNR ambassador in her community.