Behind the scenes at a tree delivery day in Ugwachanya, Tanzania!

7:30 am, Ugwachanya, Southern Tanzania 🇹🇿

It’s 7:30 a.m. on a rainy Wednesday morning, and Patricia Luhwago, a tree nursery manager, is already busy. For the last half an hour, she’s been coordinating farmhands and delivery drivers, and supervising as the first batch of the 24,000 tree seedlings she produced are carefully loaded into the backs of waiting pick-ups. 

These tree seedlings have been her responsibility for months. She’s watered them, weeded the soil, transplanted them when necessary and protected them from the extremes of Tanzania’s weather. The saplings she’s grown are a diverse mix: there are some fruit trees, some that will be harvested sustainably for their timber and others that will help improve the health of the soil on the farms they’re planted on. 

Tree species diversification is a top priority for One Acre Fund. As a result, we offer at least three context-appropriate species in every agroecological zone we reach. Across the breadth of our operations in sub-Saharan Africa, in 2023, we helped facilitate the distribution of 40 different tree species. 

Patricia’s tree nursery is in Ugwachanya, in Southern Tanzania. It’s a short drive away from the distribution point for today’s tree distribution, in a central location for local farmers. It has been raining for the last few weeks and the dirt roads have been churned up, making the journey for the pick-ups carrying the tree saplings more challenging than it usually would be. Patricia is determined to not let the conditions get in the way of delivering the saplings to the expectant farmers. While she’s coordinating things from her tree nursery, a One Acre Fund tree officer is taking receipt of the seedlings that get to the distribution center. 

The tree officer arranges all 24,000 saplings under the watchful gaze of some of Ugwachanya’s farmers, who, despite the weather, have been waiting outside the distribution center for hours. 

As Patricia arrives, with the final batch of tree seedlings, she is greeted warmly by the gathered farmers, some of whom own farms that neighbor hers. One of those farmers is Silvestery Mgina, a retired government official. He’s been a tree farmer for several years, growing papaya, banana, lemon and avocado trees. Silvestery understands, and has benefited from, tree farming.

“I believe that fruit trees are beneficial in many ways,” Silvestery says. “I can get money by selling the fruit, but also, eating fruit is important for my own and my family’s health.”

Over the next few hours, all 24,000 of Patricia’s saplings are handed out and farmers are given a tailored training from the tree officer. The tutorial teaches farmers things like how deep to plant their saplings, how far to space them apart and how to nurture them to get the most benefits from them. Training sessions like this increase the survival rate and overall health of seedlings as they mature. 

5:00 pm, Ugwachanya, Southern Tanzania 🇹🇿

By 5:00 pm, the farmers have left. In bags, under arms or often tied to the backs of motorbikes, they’ve taken home tree saplings that will, in the years to come, replenish the nutrients of their farms’ soil, provide fruit for sale and for the sustenance of their families, and provide their food crops with shade from the sun.