Forest Gardens - Simiyu Region, Tanzania

This project implements the Forest Garden Approach (FGA). Through their 4-year training program, farmers plant thousands of trees that protect their land and bring nutrients back to the soil. Farmers are taught to plant trees in a way that optimizes land use, eliminates the need for chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and reserves water and sequesters carbon, what they call the Forest Garden.

Decades of unsustainable agriculture practices have resulted in degraded and unproductive land; nutrient-scarce food systems; and farming families who are unable to grow and sell enough to meet their most basic needs. Using the Forest Garden Approach in countries like Uganda, this project is proving that agroforestry is a solution to each of these challenges, effectively ending hunger and poverty while restoring the land and environment.

The Forest Garden provides farmers with diverse, nutritious crops that they can feed their families and sell on the market all year round. Forest Garden farmers increase their access to food and increase their income, even in the first year, all while improving the environment. This additional income allows the participating farmers to pay for their children's education and other necessary investments to improve their livelihood.

Tree Nation’s projects in Tanzania will help 600 farmers to plant over 2 million trees.

Forest Gardens are, on average, 1 acre in size. One farmer, or farming family, cares for each Forest Garden on their own land. The average Forest Garden has 2,500 trees, most of which are planted in the first or second year along the Forest Garden’s perimeter, which Trees for the Future calls the “Living Fence”. In the third and fourth years, the remaining trees are strategically placed where it will best benefit the farmer’s Forest Garden. On average, a Forest Garden offsets 144.64 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per acre over 20 years.

By the end of the four-year program, farmers see an average 400% increase in income and more than a 500% increase in access to nutrition. Forest Gardens benefit both the farmer and the land, effectively breaking the cycle of land degradation, hunger, and poverty.