From trees to harvest: how one GIF grantee is increasing climate resilience in Nigeria.

In an effort to address the growing impacts of climate change, GIF grantee One Acre Fund plans to distribute 6 million free tree seedlings to 220,000 smallholder farmers across the Kwara, Nasarawa, and Niger states in Nigeria. This programme is part of One Acre Fund’s wider goal to plant one billion trees across sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

One Acre Fund is a social enterprise on a mission to supply smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa with everything they need to grow more food and improve their livelihoods. This includes quality farm products, access to training, and affordable and flexible payment options for farm technology. GIF’s 2016 grant is helping to scale One Acre Fund’s model, enabling it to reach more beneficiaries.

Fredrick Adzoyi, Trees Lead at One Acre Fund, said the initiative in Nigeria seeks to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change on smallholder farmers in these regions.

“Tree planting is one of the ways we support farmers to continue feeding themselves, their families, and to enjoy financial stability. We started this programme in Niger State, and now it’s Kwara State’s turn, with Nasarawa State next in line,” he said.

Adzoyi explained that each farmer will receive 27 seedlings. The harvest from these will help to cushion farmers from the effects of climate change by ensuring that they can continue to harvest produce and generate income even when weather conditions do not allow for land crop harvest.

“We have seen changes in our lands as climate change continues to have negative effects by damaging soil nutrients and affecting rainfall”, explains Adzoyi. Such climate impacts can devastate the agricultural productivity of land and lead to long-term financial uncertainty for farmers.

The trees will not only help to ease this uncertainty, but will also help to protect lands from climate-induced erosion. Farmers will also be able to sell some of the trees into the furniture industry once they reach maturity.

One Acre Fund’s initiative underscores the importance of innovative approaches towards fostering climate resilience in the developing world. When income from other sources is scarce, agroforestry provides a reliable safety net for smallholder farmers, thereby helping to foster their long-term ability to withstand climate shocks.