Forest Gardens are multi-layered, integrated agroforestry system that combine trees, shrubs, crops and animals in one area to sustainably produce a variety of products and environmental services all year round.

Forest Gardens in Tanzania

Blog page with the aim of documenting all main steps needed to establish a Forest Garden from an open shamba.

This blog derives its content from a project Forest Garden Farming for People and the Planet in Mwanga – and hopefully in the future also from Forest Gardens for Human and Environmental Wellbeing in Masasi. The project in Mwanga started in January 2023, however the blog documents activities starting from the beginning of 2024. We have two sets of farmers in the project, ‘old farmers’ who joined the project in January 2023 and ‘new farmers’ who started in December 2023. In this blog we follow the activities and trainings with the new farmers.

The project in Masasi started in January 2025.

We use a similar approach to Forest Gardens to what Trees for the Future uses elsewhere in Tanzania. We are grateful for their advise and support to get started in this valuable and impactful work. This is the first time this approach is put in practice in Northern Tanzania and the Southern Coastal Lowlands in Tanzania, and thus the aim is to learn as much as possible about the performance of the tree and crop species selected, and the way farmers receive the project.

The projects last for four years, which is the minimum required to go through all the phases from ‘protection’ to ‘diversification’ and ‘optimization’. Both projects are funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland through a Finnish organisation called Liana. The Mwanga project is hosted at, and locally operated from KIWAMWAKU and the Masasi project is done with KIMAS. In both projects, government agricultural extension officers work as facilitators alongside staff and interns.

The aim of this blog is to document practices, methods and techniques that the projects use. Transforming monocropped maize fields, or maize-bean fields into diverse Forest Gardens is a big thing. We hope that documenting our experiences will be useful for others who are interested in establishing Forest Gardens, or planning projects that introduce Forest Gardens somewhere in similar environments.

We also draw lessons from Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT) organic agriculture training courses, and thus we gratefully acknowledge them as the source of many organic practices that we describe in the articles of this blog page. All the facilitators and group leaders take part in these courses at suitable times of the Forest Garden establishment.

Who we are?

Yahaya Jumanne, Lead Forest Garden Project Officer

Yahaya is the main contributor to this blog. His articles are grounded in rich, hands-on experience working directly with local farmers in the field. He is a forester by training, having graduated from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in Morogoro, Tanzania, in 2021. Since his studies, he has been passionate about growing things, always eager to experiment and learn from the results. Before joining the project, he managed his own nursery in Arusha.

In September 2023, Yahaya joined the project in Mwanga, where he has steadily taken on more leadership responsibilities and has become a key pillar in sustaining project activities. As of September 2025, he has been working as Lead Forest Garden Project Officer, serving as the team leader for all activities, not only forestry.

Yahaya also posts related things on LinkedIn.

Yahaya between a papaya grove and a young live fence in Mwanga.

Sarah Kanza, Assistant Project Officer

Sarah graduated from the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree, specialising in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness. She joined the Forest Garden project as an intern in June 2024. Her previous work experiences were notably from ECHO East Africa Impact Centre and Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT).

Through Formal courses offered by the project and her dedication to learning practical agriculture and improving her English skills, she demonstrated remarkable professional growth and was promoted to Assistant Project Officer a year later.

Sarah is passionate about helping farmers establish successful Forest Gardens and improve their food production and livelihoods. Her positive attitude and strong work ethic have made her a valued member of the project team. Since Yahaya assumed overall responsibility for the local implementation of the project as Lead Project Officer, Sarah has worked closely alongside him, forming an indispensable team.

Sarah shares the joy of a successful passion fruit harvest with a farmer.

Eija Soini Coe, Liana coordinator and project advisor

This blog is steered along by Liana Forest Gardens Project Coordinator Eija Soini Coe, who encourages contributions from the field and often helps bring the articles online. Eija has a PhD in development geography from the University of Helsinki. Her career in development research and community development began in 1999 when she joined ICRAF, though her experience in East Africa dates back to 1976. She is a founder member of Liana and has coordinated Liana’s activities since its establishment in 2005. At the heart of Eija’s work is international development and the leadership of community-based projects, supported by a rich set of complementary skills including research, solution-focused coaching, digital communications, graphic design, and organisational leadership.

Eija at the start of the Masasi project in January 2025.

Julius Mariki, Forest Garden Project Officer- Horticulture (2024-2025)

Julius stayed with the project from January 2024 till May 2025. He has a Bachelor degree in horticulture from Sokoine University of Agriculture, and his hands on experience in agricultural projects have equipped him with a solid foundation to understand the complexities of sustainable farming. He has expertise in soil management, crop rotation, intercropping and integrated pest management; and experience in working closely with communities.

Julius with passion fruit seedlings.

Gladness Kaaya, Intern, Assistant facilitator, Forester (2024-2025)

Gladness stayed with the project in Mwanga from September to December 2024 as an intern, and in Masasi as a Project officer from January to July 2025. She graduated from the Sokoine University of Agriculture with the Bachelor in Forestry in 2023. Despite of having graduated so recently she had already acquired valuable work from volunteering and through internship positions.

Gladness sowing seeds with a farmer group member.

Welcome to read!

  • First steps to establish Marketing associations: Agribusiness training and joining groups by a Forest Garden Farmers Network

    First steps to establish Marketing associations: Agribusiness training and joining groups by a Forest Garden Farmers Network

    In May 2025, we began supporting farmers by providing training in agribusiness. The first two training sessions introduced farmers to basic business concepts and vocabulary and helped them develop essential business…

  • Integrating Beekeeping into Forest Gardens in Mwanga

    Integrating Beekeeping into Forest Gardens in Mwanga

    by Yahaya Jumanne Pollination is the invisible engine behind food production. To strengthen this ecological foundation, the Mwanga Forest Garden project has been integrating stingless beekeeping into the forest garden system,…

  • Introducing pineapples

    Introducing pineapples

    By Yahaya Jumanne and Sarah Kanza On 19 August 2025, the forest garden team including the project officer, an intern and five extension officers participated in a pineapple farming training conducted…

  • Keeping planting materials & seeds for next season

    Keeping planting materials & seeds for next season

    by Yahaya Shabani WHY KEEP YOUR OWN PLANTING MATERIALS? A. Sweet Potatoes Planting material: Vines (cuttings) How to select: How to store between seasons: 1. Field Storage: Leave some plants in…

  • Self-assessment to farmers

    Self-assessment to farmers

    By Yahaya Jumanne In order to achieve any target in life, the objectives must be clear. In an endeavor such as establishing a Forest Garden — which takes several years —…

  • Organic pest management

    Organic pest management

    The following is the handout prepared by Sarah Kanza (project intern in Mwanga) for farmers for the training sessions delivered at the beginning of the new cycle of vegetable growing in…

  • Crop rotation

    Crop rotation

    by Yahaya Jumanne Crop rotation is an essential technique for soil fertility and pest management in Forest Gardens. To simplify things, we used the rotation from green leafy vegetables to legumes,…

  • Weaving and Pruning techniques for effective live fence

    Weaving and Pruning techniques for effective live fence

    by Yahaya Jumanne 1. Introduction Live fences play a vital role in Forest Garden systems by protecting crops, preventing encroachment, and providing valuable resources like fodder, firewood, and mulch. Acacia polycantha…

  • Raised beds instead of seedbags for tree seedling growing

    Raised beds instead of seedbags for tree seedling growing

    by Yahaya Jumanne In January 2025, farmers were equipped with sustainable nursery techniques by using raised beds for sowing Acacia, Gliricidia, and Leucaena seeds. They learned an affordable and eco-friendly alternative…

  • How to make compost? Composting as an integral part of Forest Gardens

    How to make compost? Composting as an integral part of Forest Gardens

    by Yahaya JumanneIn March 2025, 369 forest garden farmers learned the production of organic compost. They were equiped with cost-effective, eco-friendly soil fertility enhancement techniques using local resources. The composting method…