RIGHTS RESTRICTEDOvercoming_Roland Bunch Figure 2

Madagascar. The only difference between this woman’s two fields is that this is the first year the field on the left has had a 9-month cowpea growing in it, whereas the field on the right has had the cowpeas there for six years, giving it almost total resistance to the droughts. The second field produced more than six times the maize harvest/ha that the first field did. These two fields obviously weathered the same drought because they exist right next to each other, as is evidenced by the fact that the same two clouds on the right side of the first photo had only moved to about half-way across the fields by the time the second photo was taken. The addition of trees in these fields would, of course, increase soil moisture retention further by providing shade and reducing wind speeds.