Promise of the Veld

Promise of the Veld, South Africa from IofC Film Archives on YouTube.

Roly Kingwill's sheep farm lies in South Africa's semi-arid Karoo. This documentary explores his radical response to a challenge to live for something much greater than just exploiting his land and his workers for the biggest return. He came to the realization that the land was dying through over-grazing and severe erosion and that only he could change this. Taking his Christian faith more seriously, he dropped his authoritarian approach to his workers and adopted radical methods of soil conservation.

‘There began to grow in me a new "land ethic" - that the soil belongs to God and to future generations,' says Kingwill. He decided to cut his stock levels by a third and introduce a system of rotational grazing. Today this is recommended practice. When Kingwill started, it was uncommon and took great courage. ‘It meant sacrificing income at a time when we were carrying a heavy bond on the land,' he says. After some very tough years Kingwill began to see results. “Grass was growing where it had never grown before. The sheep began to yield more wool and the percentage of lambs increased. Cattle were fattening where there had been no food ten years before.”

Click here to watch this film online

The Man who Stopped the Desert

In Burkina Faso, the rapid desertification of the once fertile plains of the Sahel caused droughts and ruined harvests, sparking a mass exodus of village inhabitants and famines that decimated populations. Yet remarkably, one illiterate peasant farmer and his ingenious farming methods have proved the key to achieving what experts have failed to do: stop the desert. This inspiring documentary tells the unique story of Yacouba Sawadogo, whose years of toil have transformed the lives of thousands.

Yacouba Sawadogo - interview in the Initiatives of Change international conference centre in Caux, Switzerland: