Partners for Innovation and Oxfam Senegal worked closely together to identify the potential for agroforestry-based enterprise development. The initiative was supported with a subsidy from the Dutch Embassy in Dakar.

Environmental programme

The Dutch embassy has been promoting agroforestry in Senegal through its environmental programme since the 1990s. The environment support programme finished in 2014 and left behind a thorough system to support agroforestry promotion in the central groundnut belt of the country. Partners for Innovation and Oxfam joined forces to take the program one step further, and enabled smallholder farmers to plant trees and earn from them. The idea is that large groups of young farmers can develop smallholder enterprises by growing trees on farmland, along with cash crops and animal production.

Online tool

To support smallholder enterprise development, we used an online tool to calculate investments and benefits to set up and grow agroforestry gardens. Oxfam supported local NGOs to help farmers to form groups that can bring products in larger quantities to the market. At the same time rural credit institutions have the capital and know-how to finance such businesses.

With the embassy support, Partners for Innovation and Oxfam developed the tools and brought together credit, government and scientific institutions. This contributed to the innovative approach to scaling-up agroforestry and ensure trees enhance the productivity of rural landscapes.

With this project we contribute to the following Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations: