MyFarmTrees: Empowering Smallholder Farmers for Scalable, Financially Adaptive, Sustainable, and Bankable Forest-Landscape Restoration at Scale

Background

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation are among the most pressing challenges facing global agriculture and food systems today, particularly impacting smallholder farmers and rural communities. These farmers, who manage the majority of the world’s agricultural and forest landscapes, are disproportionately vulnerable to climate shocks such as droughts, floods, and pest outbreaks. In addition, many operate under conditions characterised by insecure land tenure, limited access to quality planting materials, technical knowledge, financial services, and market opportunities. These challenges impede their ability to contribute effectively to landscape restoration and sustainable agriculture, while also limiting their access to emerging climate finance and incentive mechanisms.

The MyFarmTrees (MFT) platform was developed in response to these multifaceted challenges as a science-based, technology-enabled solution to empower smallholders and communities to lead restoration efforts in degraded landscapes. With particular emphasis on native tree species that are adapted to local conditions, MFT addresses critical bottlenecks in restoration efforts—including the availability and traceability of high-quality seeds and seedlings, fragmented supply chains, lack of transparent monitoring and verification, and the need for equitable economic incentives.

Designed with strong attention to gender and social inclusion, especially focusing on women and youth, MFT ensures their active participation and benefit-sharing in restoration initiatives. The platform integrates digital tools such as mobile applications for seed collection (Collector), nursery management (Nursery), and planting site monitoring (GeoFarm) to capture comprehensive data on restoration activities along the full value chain—from seed sourcing to tree establishment. This data is used to verify restoration outcomes and structure transparent, reliable incentive payments via digital means, including blockchain-based tracking to secure data integrity.

Implementations in Kenya and Cameroon, along with emerging pilots in other African and Asian countries, demonstrate MFT’s effectiveness in advancing national climate and biodiversity goals. The platform supports multiple international commitments such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). It facilitates the integration of restoration actions into these frameworks by providing scientifically robust data for monitoring progress, enhancing stakeholder collaboration, and enabling financial mechanisms that reward restored ecosystem services.

By fostering partnerships with government agencies, research institutions, NGOs, and community organizations, MFT builds local capacities and strengthens restoration value chains. The approach empowers rural enterprises such as community seed collectors and nurseries, supporting the development of sustainable business models in restoration that generate diversified income streams, enhance local livelihoods, and contribute to poverty alleviation.

Moreover, MFT aligns with broader sustainability transitions, promoting biodiversity conservation, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and supporting food security and nutrition through diversified agroforestry practices. The platform’s integration with innovative finance—including carbon credit markets, digital payments, and credit and insurance products—enables smallholders to access climate finance and investment opportunities that have traditionally been out of reach.

Overall, the MFT platform exemplifies a holistic, scalable, and inclusive approach to agricultural and landscape restoration in the context of a changing climate, offering practical solutions that bridge science, technology, and community action.

Activities

The MyFarmTrees (MFT) platform combines innovative digital technology, capacity building, and community engagement to transform landscape restoration activities led by smallholder farmers and local communities. The project is coordinated by the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in partnership with local governments, research institutions, NGOs, and community organisations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The core activities center around three interconnected mobile applications designed to trace and verify every stage in the restoration value chain: MyFarmTrees Collector (seed collection), MyFarmTrees Nursery (seedling propagation and nursery management), and MyGeoFarm (planting and on-site monitoring). These apps enable users to register native tree seeds, document nursery germination and seedling growth, map planting sites, and monitor tree survival and health. This end-to-end digital registration system employs blockchain technology to ensure transparency, traceability, and robust verification essential for integrating restoration with emerging climate finance and carbon markets.

Capacity building is a fundamental pillar of the program, involving comprehensive trainings and coaching for diverse stakeholders including seed collectors, nursery managers, farmers, extension agents, and decision-makers. These trainings leverage hands-on workshops, role-play simulations, and scenario-based exercises to empower users with the necessary technical skills and knowledge to efficiently use the apps in the field. Tailored materials and multi-lingual support ensure accessibility for actors across varying literacy and technology proficiency levels. This inclusive approach emphasizes gender equity and youth engagement—groups traditionally underrepresented in restoration programs—through gender-responsive incentives and youth-friendly participation models.

The platform facilitates the development of local entrepreneurial nursery enterprises by providing tools to catalog and market native seedling species, fostering sustainable seed supply chains critical to scaling resilient restoration. Digital payments, enabled via mobile money and other e-wallet systems, serve to incentivise nurseries, seed collectors, and farmers, thereby creating economic value and livelihood diversification while promoting high standards for seed and seedling quality. These performance-linked incentives are carefully designed to be equitable and transparent, addressing past imbalances in benefit distribution.

The project actively supports continuous monitoring and adaptive management by using real-time data generated by users and complemented with Earth Observation analytics. The data feeds into dashboards accessible to community groups, government agencies, investors, and project managers to track restoration progress, assess biodiversity outcomes, and measure climate mitigation impacts. This evidence base helps target interventions more effectively, secure financing, and report on restoration commitments aligned with Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).

Collaborative partnerships extend the platform’s reach and functionality. Engagements with forestry research institutes, conservation NGOs, local governments, and international donors ensure that MFT integrates scientific knowledge, policy priorities, and community perspectives. Geographic expansion pilots are underway or planned in multiple countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, adapting the platform to diverse ecological and socio-economic contexts while maintaining its open-source architecture for flexibility and scalability.IMPACT

Supports national climate adaptation and mitigation targets by scaling up forest restoration with native species, improving biodiversity conservation, promoting gender equity, and enhancing local livelihoods through transparent and verified incentive mechanisms.