Tukuze Kilifi – Growing Trees & Livelihoods in Coastal Kenya

GOAL

To improve the climate adaptation and environmental resilience of 12,500 smallholder households in 5 wards of Kilifi County by implementing a cashew agroforestry model, improving regenerative agricultural knowledge and skills amongst communities, and encouraging the cultivation of drought-resistant staple foods.

LOCATION

Kilifi County, Kenya

DURATION-

2024

-

2026

FARMERS

30,000

VALUE CHAINS

Cashew, Finger Millet, Moringa

PARTNERS

ETG Climate Solutions

FUNDING

USD

Tukuze Kilifi – Growing Trees & Livelihoods in Coastal Kenya

In January 2024, ETG Climate Solutions joined forces with Empowering Farmers Foundation (EFF) to launch the ETG Emerging Farmer Carbon Abatement Program in Kenya.

The project, called Tukuze Kilifi (which means Grow Kilifi in Swahili), is planting over 2.5 million trees during the 2024 and 2025 planting seasons, to improve the livelihoods of 30,000 households in Kenya’s coastal region. Small-scale farmers are being introduced to a unique agroforestry model that integrates cashew, moringa, indigenous trees, and finger millet.

A visit by Global Head of Climate Solutions Ilya Tyuvildin in March 2024 coincided with extensive press coverage of the project in local and national newspapers, TV and radio channels, arising from the scope and scale of the initiative, which is closely aligned with the national government’s ambitious agenda of planting 15 billion trees across Kenya.

This holistic model provides both long and short-term benefits such as income through cashew, increased biodiversity, the food and medicinal values of moringa, the fertilizing effect of indigenous trees, and the nutritional benefits of finger millet. In addition farm ponds are being constructed to collect rainwater and support the watering of the young trees during the dryer months.

ETG Climate Solutions will sell the carbon credits from the CO2 sequestered by growing trees on the voluntary market, which will allow the project activities to be funded and scaled up across more wards and counties.


Key project activities, achievements, and impact

• EFF imports polyclonal cashew seeds from Tanzania through the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) and propagates them in community-based nurseries. These seeds are certified by KEPHIS.

• Following the successful implementation of Phase 1 in 2024—where over 900,000 cashew and moringa trees were planted among 14,600 farmers—ETG Climate Solutions has approved Phase 2. This phase targets the planting of 1.3 million cashew and moringa seedlings across eight additional wards in Kilifi County, benefiting 15,000 more farmers.

• 40 community-based nurseries are propagating over 1.5 million cashew seedlings in 2025.

• These nurseries employ over 100 youth for up to 6 months, strengthening local livelihoods within the community.

• To enhance farmer incomes, EFF facilitated the formation of the Mibibo Cashew Farmer Cooperative in 2022 to improve aggregation, bargaining power and farm gate prices. Boasting a membership of 517, Mibibo has managed to secure a long-term offtake partnership with Nuts and More (EA) EPZ Ltd, a cashew processing factory in Kilifi.

• EFF has also distributed finger millet seeds and provided Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) training to 30,000 farmers in Kilifi County during the 2024 and 2025 planting seasons. Finger millet was chosen for its high nutritional value, drought resistance, and ability to thrive in arid conditions, making it a key crop for enhancing food security, improving nutrition, and strengthening climate resilience among smallholder farmers.

Agricultural Productivity: Enhance agricultural productivity through sustainable and climate-smart practices, improved access to quality seeds, fertilisers, and modern technologies, and training for small-scale farmers. b. Irrigation and Water Management: Promote water conservation techniques, efficient irrigation systems, and integrated water resource management to ensure a reliable water supply for agriculture. c. Diversification: Encourage crop diversification to enhance food availability and household nutrition by promoting the cultivation of smart food crops and high-value crops for increased income generation. d. Storage and Distribution: Strengthen post-harvest management and improve storage infrastructure to reduce household food losses; and promote efficient aggregation systems for improved inputs distribution and access to markets. e. Market Linkages & Financial Services: Support the establishment or farmer cooperatives/ organisations for effective produce aggregation and market linkages, and provide technical assistance to enable small-scale producers to access domestic and international markets and financial services, fostering income generation and economic growth. f. Skills Training and Capacity Building: Facilitate agronomic training, entrepreneurship development, and business management skills to enhance the capacity of smallholder farmers and communities to generate sustainable incomes.
Scroll to Top