From 6th to 10th March, 2023, the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board, in partnership with the World Agroforestry, conducted a five-day training session on good agricultural practices for mango and avocado fruit trees, managing pests and diseases, and the potential of trees for carbon sequestration in the Juru and Rweru sector in Bugesera District, Eastern Province.

The training occurred under a project called “Fruit Trees for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation in East Africa” which aims to scale out community-based growing of fruit and nut trees using multipurpose species where possible, show smallholders how to site trees on farms to maximize climate-adaptation benefits, and estimate benefits of fruit-tree carbon sequestration to determine the potential for access to international climate finance that could further accelerate expansion of scale.

Therefore, this project seeks to increase tree-growing, especially fruit trees, in targeted agricultural landscapes of Kenya and Rwanda. It is anticipated that fruit trees will provide nutritional diversity, increased food supply and saleable surplus production to people in need, thereby contributing towards increased household incomes.

During the five-day training in the Juru and Rweru sectors, participants were trained on soil conditions for mango and avocado, mineral nutrition of mango and avocado, fruit nursery construction, nursery management and fruit tree propagation, among other topics.