Farmers are putting native trees at the center of restoration efforts, thanks to a mobile app and blockchain-powered platform. Learn how My Farm Trees works in this field story.
Lucy Anyango Okumu is a farmer in Kenya’s western County of Siaya. She surveys a row of trees planted in front of her house. Her garden contains everything from chili plants to pawpaw, jackfruit, mangoes, and avocados. She explains the reason that her garden is so diverse. The trees are beneficial, she explains.
“When the bananas are ready, I harvest them and leave them to ripen. If we don’t have food, my family and I eat the bananas. If I need money, I sell them.”
But, she says, during the dry season, when there’s no rain, it’s difficult to get the seeds. Sometimes she buys them in the market, but without a quality seal, it’s hard to know how good the harvest will be. It is for farmers like Okumu that the MyFarmTrees digital platform has been developed.
As climate change threatens to reduce global crop yields by 10% by 2050, smallholders and rural communities, most affected by land degradation, play a critical role in tree restoration. My Farm Trees incentivizes these efforts by using mobile technology and blockchain-tracked digital payments to support restoration activities led by smallholders like Okuma, community groups, and schools.
Restoration for resilience
The platform helps farmers access training, so that they can become more aware about which indigenous trees provide which benefits. From more nutritious fruit trees to timber trees for income generation, farmers can access quality, assured seed originally provided by the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), so that they can produce more, quality planting materials and make them easily accessible to other farmers.
They can also register nurseries planting quality material. Working closely with community and privately-owned nurseries owned by smallholder farmers like Lucy, the aim is to train them to collect and propagate quality the seeds and improve their availability.
The digital platform, which integrates various app-based solutions, including MyGeoFarmer, MyGeoTree, and MyGeoNursery, building on the existing SeedIT system, supports farmers to match resilient native trees to their landscape. Funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by IUCN, the platform is executed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, complemented by training to ensure that trees do not compete with food crops, but rather support their growth and improve overall food and income security.
Director of KEFRI, John Millan Otuoma, explains:
"Most farmers prefer exotic varieties for income, but these have limited values in terms of the environment. We provided tree seedlings and planting material, conducted research to obtain quality seed, and built capacity,” he said. This included mapping out, registering, and certifying nurseries to ensure the availability of high-quality seeds for indigenous species.
“Even though they were available, they were few,” he says, noting that indigenous seeds were hard to come by. “I wanted to plant trees so that the neighbors, the locals from this area would get trees for planting. Gradually, the customers became more. I started storing more seedlings so that my customers wouldn’t miss them. From monitoring the seeds and seedlings, I have noticed a great improvement. Those are good seedlings that when planted somewhere, they can readily beautify a place and create a forest.”
Options for a greener, more secure future
Over time, the project’s target is to grow 400,000 trees, benefiting 4,000 farmers while restoring 5,000 hectares of land. A blend of native species and exotics, with around 70% native trees, better adapted to the environment and impacts of climate change, are recommended. In Kenya, the project is taking place in Siaya in Western Kenya, and in Laikipia and Turkana, to challenge mindsets and supporting a transition in the way that communities value indigenous trees over fast-growing exotic ones for timber for example.
“In the future, I want to see a very green environment, especially in dry areas like Turkana, where we have transitioned to kitchen gardens and farmers are growing native fruit trees,” explains Oduor. The fruit trees are native, grown and integrated into kitchen gardens to make it easy for farmers to water and tend to them, he notes. “We are also working with both primary and secondary schools so that students can identify trees and understand their value. They can pass this information to their parents that we have not been able to reach, to ensure the education reaches further.”
By combining cutting-edge technology with traditional knowledge, My Farm Trees aims to support farmers like Okumu, who want additional income options. And, like Ogonda, who can supply their communities with quality planting material that benefit the environment and support Kenya’s restoration targets, while also earning an income. Instead of making trade-offs, the platform aims to give farmers options. So that decisions –such as whether to put food on the table or plant a tree– no longer have to be made.
