Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

As the long-awaited rains finally come to Machakos and Makueni Districts, the self-help groups working with us have started to plant the tree seedlings they have been propagating in their tree nurseries since May. Excellent Development's 'dams, terracing and trees' approach to soil and water conservation helps give the community groups, and their trees, the best chance of success.

Excellent's Field Officers work with community groups to set up tree nurseries near the sand dams they have built. Having a secure water supply nearby enables tree seedlings to grow to a good size in the nursery before the rains arrive, so they can be planted out to take full advantage of the short rainy season.

In order to give those seedlings the best chance of survival, members are not allowed to plant them until they have dug a hole 2x2x2 feet in size and collected manure to mix with the earth around the tree. This helps combat the problems created by having very densely compacted soil with relatively low nutrient levels. Using this approach, a survival rate of over 60% is easily achieved, in comparison with just 2-3% for Kenya as a whole.

Members are free to plant as many trees as they like, of whatever species they want, and Excellent's field staff are always available for support and advice on unusual types of trees and their uses. This is proving invaluable since farmers in the areas where we work have many uses for trees including as food, firewood, medicine, animal fodder and building materials. As you can imagine you can save a lot of money and time when these are readily available to harvest from your own farm.

Read More About Our Trees