Trees are vital, no doubt about that. As the biggest plants on the planet, they give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilize the soil, and give life to the world’s wildlife. In addition, agroforestry trees enhance soil fertility and act as windbreaks for nearby crops. Thus, trees are playing a big role in addressing the effects of climate change.

Therefore, Rwanda has set a target of cultivating trees on 85 percent of cultivable land. To achieve its goal, Rwanda has been partnering with partners like One Acre Fund Rwanda by distributing agroforestry and fruit trees to farmers living in rural areas throughout the country. Since 2018, the organization has been supporting farmers to plant trees because climate change affects them more than any other community on the planet.

One Acre Fund Rwanda is an agricultural development organization serving more than 750,000 farm families in 27 districts.

"Climate change affects farmers most, whereas they produce food we eat. By helping farmers to plant trees, we are impacting their lives and helping them to boost their production,” Evariste Bagambiki, the communications specialist at One Acre Fund Rwanda.

Over the past five years, One Acre Fund Rwanda has distributed more than 70 million agroforestry trees throughout the country. In 2022, the organization distributed 20 million agroforestry trees of 9 varieties to 1.5 million farmers across the country, contributing 55% to the number of trees planted in the country. They also distributed 350,000 fruit trees.

One Acre Fund has been distributing trees from centralized nurseries operated by the organization and decentralized nurseries operated by farmer micro-entrepreneurs. The centralized nurseries are based in Gisagara, Karongi, Musanze and Ngoma districts.

The decentralized nurseries are situated in all cells of Bugesera, Kirehe, Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Rulindo, Gicumbi, Gakenke, Burera, Kamonyi, Ruhango, Muhanga, Nyamagabe, Nyaruguru, Ngororero, Nyabihu and Nyanza districts.

In 2023, they will focus on a decentralized nursery model by scaling it in all sectors of the 27 districts excluding Kigali City. This model allows the production of seedlings in the same agro-ecological zones of the farmers’ land and enables the farmers to find the seedlings nearby. The model also helps to increase farmers’ ownership of the trees’ production and improves farmers’ skills in seedlings production.

Farmers who cultivated trees distributed by the organization said they have started benefiting from them and the impact can be seen on the farmland and families.

"Working with One Acre Fund Rwanda has been very beneficial to my family. The trees they donated to us prevent the soil from eroding, especially in a region like ours that is very mountainous,” Alice Muhayimpundu, a resident of Rutsiro District, said.

"The trees grow faster and when we need some money to spend, we can make timbers from the grevillea trees or sell a whole tree for as much as Rwf15,000,” she said.

Rutsiro district is among the districts that also received trees from One Acre Fund Rwanda Karongi centralized nursery.

From the centralized nurseries, One Acre Fund transports the trees to the cell level where farmers can walk and pick up the trees. After picking the trees, they then go to plant them on their lands.

"Decentralized nurseries are managed by local entrepreneurs with One Acre Fund Rwanda’s support,” Bagambiki said. "At all cell levels, where we have the decentralized nurseries, farmers walk and go to pick up the trees under the coordination of One Acre Fund Rwanda and farmer promoters.”

In 2023, One Acre Fund Rwanda will develop 1900 decentralized nurseries, which will contribute to the production of 20 million trees that will be distributed to farmers in October.