Grazing livestock such as sheep, goats, and camels may provide an efficient way to harvest fodder grown at the Sahara Forest Project facility. Grazing is less costly than harvesting and packaging fodder for sale offsite, and the grazing animals return nutrients to the soil directly through their manure. In addition, most native fodder species are well suited for grazing, and highly nutritional alfalfa can also be grazed in a controlled manner.
Allowing controlled grazing on parts of the land revegetated with fodder will provide locally grown food to livestock in a region where animal feed is primarily imported, but at larger scales will also reduce overgrazing pressure on other parts of the desert landscape. The Sahara Forest Project will thus not only make its lands more productive and catalyze the recovery of other desert areas to a healthier state.
