Project Update
This year’s planting season has gone incredibly well! Farmers enrolled in the Iringa CDI3 Forest Gardens program planted a huge 600,000 trees in January, and another 603,000 in February – this means over two thirds of the trees for this project have been planted in just 2 months!
Farmers are already seeing the benefits of their Forest Gardens, which continue to produce fruits and vegetables despite low rainfall. This shows how important these projects are for the health and wellbeing of the farmers and their families.
Planting forest gardens in Tanzania
This project will takes place in Iringa, a region in the south of Tanzania which stretches along the ridges and valleys of the Udzungwa Mountains. Currently, farmers in Iringa are predominantly planting one or two types of crops. This method of planting leaves farmers incredibly vulnerable to extreme weather events, pests, and market fluctuations. In addition, most farmers operate individually, with little to no support and access to overcome obstacles in agricultural production and formal markets. To combat this, TREES’ projects utilise their tried and tested Forest Garden Approach. This involves a unique training programme that teaches farmers how to plant thousands of trees to protect their land and bring nutrients back to the soil, helping them to improve the size and quality of their crop yields.
The trees that are planted in the Forest Gardens revitalise the local landscape and help create new business and market opportunities for the farmers, which enables them to diversify their income and be more resilient to climate change. The Iringa Forest Garden project will run over the course of two years, starting in May 2022 through to December 2023 and will plant upwards of 1.8 million trees over this period. It will involve around 600 local farmers.
You can read more about Forest Gardens here.
See the project on Restor here.