Race to Resilience in Action: How fruit trees and farmer training are future-proofing Kenyan landscapes

In Elgeyo Marakwet, one of Kenya’s 47 counties, farmers are grappling with a changing climate, depleted soils and limited access to agricultural knowledge. The region spans both highland and arid landscapes, making sustainable farming particularly challenging. But a new approach is taking root, one that puts farmers at the centre of restoration.

As part of the Restore Africa initiative, led by Race to Resilience partner the Global EverGreening Alliance, demonstration plots for fruit trees such as avocado and mango are helping farmers grow resilient livelihoods while restoring their land.

Restore Africa is the world’s largest community-led, nature-based carbon removal programme, which aims to restore over 1.8 million hectares of land and improve the livelihoods of over 1.5 million smallholder farming families across six African countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

In Kenya, the initiative is set to restore 250,000 hectares of land while reaching 250,000 smallholder farmers and pastoralists by 2052 through a combination of agroforestry, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable value chains tailored to different ecosystems.

In Elgeyo Marakewet, these demonstration plots serve as living classrooms; small, farmer-managed sites that showcase climate-smart agricultural techniques in action. So far, three plots have been established; two for avocado (including one at Chebaru Agricultural Training Centre) and one for mango.

“We are thankful to the Restore Africa programme for establishing this avocado demo plot. The plot will boost our knowledge of the good agricultural practices for avocados,” said Dorothy Kemboi, an avocado farmer in Elegyo Marakwet.

The mango demonstration plot established at Jesca Kiprop’s farm, a lead farmer in Cheptebo, will serve farmers in Chesigot Sub-County. “Before today’s training, I would use holes of 1 foot by 1 foot when planting a mango tree, but today I have learned that the ideal is 3 feet by 3 feet”, said Jesca after receiving the good agricultural practices (GAPs) training. “This enables the mango tree to get enough space to grow and absorb water considering this is an Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) area and we have water shortage issues,” she added.

Beyond fruit trees, the programme is expanding to over locally relevant value chains such as cassava, sorghum, and dairy tailored to suit different zones across the county. In total, the project in Elgeyo Marakwet has already trained 113 lead farmers, and reached 22,596 people.

Learn more about the Global Evergreening Alliance and this project here.

Race to Resilience

The Race to Resilience is a global campaign working to improve the resilience of four billion people to climate risk by 2030. It does this through a network of partners supporting locally led work in areas such as health, food, water and livelihoods. Learn more about the Race to Resilience.