Note from Storm: Here’s a great 7-minute video about a young farmer in Kenya who has boosted his income and quality of life by starting a fruit tree nursery.
In the process, he has greatly reduced the flooding and landslides that used to plague his community.
He has enabled many of his neighbors to earn extra money and feed their families better.
He is increasing tree cover in a country that is 98% deforested, and thus helping to reduce climate change via carbon sequestration.
And, while the video doesn’t mention it, the fruit trees are probably helping to restore biodiversity, especially insects, birds, and bats.
Given the starting point of these mango, avocado, and citrus orchards–on highly degraded land–we can consider this a form of restorative agriculture. It’s making the local area more livable (by cooling daytime temperatures) and is most likely rebuilding the soil, since perennial crops like trees don’t requiring tilling of the soil, and require far fewer inputs than annual crops.