When Fred Marani started working for Vi Agroforestry in 1998, the organization’s partnership with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) had already been going for some time. 

“I don’t know exactly when it started, sometime in the early or mid 90s, but ICRAF was an old partner when I arrived,” he says.

And the partnership has continued since, on a number of fronts. Vi Agroforestry – a Swedish-based organization that works to promote sustainable farming practices in East Africa – was a natural fit for an ICRAF partnership. Drawing on its extensive networks with smallholder farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, Vi Agroforestry helps to spread the technical knowledge that is generated by ICRAF scientists in Nairobi.  

“There was a lot that we did together in terms of training, especially on the latest techniques in soil improvement,” says Marani, who serves as Vi Agroforestry’s country manager for Kenya.  

ICRAF has also provided a number of technical resources, which Vi Agroforestry distributes to smallholder farmers across the region, using the organization’s office in Kisumu, in Western Kenya, as a base. Marani says that has been “a very positive result” of the collaboration with ICRAF.

“We received quite a lot of materials, especially books, on agroforestry… We could get any information we needed,” he says. 

There is an urgent need for better knowledge about agroforestry, Marani adds, especially in Western Kenya, where he is based.

As the region’s population has increased, farmers have cleared trees to make space for more crops, Marani explains. But instead of increasing their yields, the tree-felling has caused farm productivity to decline. 

“Farmers will tell you that life was better, production was better, when there was more interaction between trees, crops, and livestock,” Marani says. 

Productivity has already increased in the areas where new agroforestry methods have been adopted, but much more work needs to be done. Indeed, Marani says that he hopes to collaborate with ICRAF even more in the future. 

“Agroforestry holds the key,” Marani says. “When you look at the environmental and economic benefits, you find that agroforestry has a lot of value… The issue is information.” 

To learn more about Vi Agroforestry, please visit http://www.viagroforestry.org/.