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Growing nutritious food

Read about our food security and nutrition approach.

Trees provide nutritious fruit, nuts, and leaves, giving people stable supplies of food, even when other crops fail. They provide an alternative, reliable source of food, supporting communities to adapt to the effects of the climate crisis. That's why we support people to grow trees as a source of nutritious food.

This is our food security and nutrition approach.

Why is this needed?

When you rely on farmland for your food and income, climate change makes life tough and unpredictable. Too much or too little rain, rising temperatures and poor-quality soil mean that communities struggle to grow enough food.  

In many cases, families are forced to eat only once a day and fill up on starchy food like rice, which lacks vital nutrients. As a result, malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies are common where we work, especially in children. 

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    children in sub-Saharan Africa experience stunted growth

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    children in sub-Saharan Africa experience severe wasting

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    people in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished

How do we help?

We work with communities to grow and protect trees because they keep land fertile and help crops to thrive. 

If crops fail because of flooding or drought, trees survive, providing nutritious fruit, nuts and leaves, to eat or sell. This gives people stable supplies of food in the face of the climate crisis. 

Our impact in 2018/19

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    nutrition gardens of moringa and baobab planted in Burkina Faso

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    people supported to increase their dietary diversity in Burkina Faso

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    mango and papaya trees distributed in Ethiopia

The magic of baobab

We grow trees that have products that are rich in important nutrients.

Take the baobab tree. The baobab fruit is a superfood, packed with vitamins. Likewise, the moringa tree, whose nutritious leaves are ready to eat after just three months of growth

Leaves For Livelihoods

The food security and nutrition approach is at the heart of our Growing Food & Incomes project. During this project, we have grown nutrition gardens with communities in Burkina Faso, which produce nutritious food and incomes for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

Mah, a woman on Tree Aid's She Grows project, holding up a bowl of leaves.

“Without trees, life would simply be impossible. Trees go into everything we do. We eat, we take care of ourselves and we cook our meals using trees.” Mah, Djekouma, Mali

Read about how we will help Mah