When Francis Adupa joined nonprofit Trees for the Future (TREES) four years ago, he says he saw it as a chance to start over at 66 years old. And he was right. As one of the oldest farmers in the program, staff say Francis is also one of the most hardworking.
Before joining TREES, Francis struggled with feeding his family of seven and most of his children were not going to school because of his low income. His farm was deteriorating with each passing day, and he had started worrying about the future of his home.
card caption = “Francis Adupa found success in Forest Gardening.”]
In 2016, TREES started work in Lira and Kole, reaching out to farming communities interested in learning about agroforestry and sustainable farming techniques. Francis heard about the organization through his neighbor and decided to give it a try.
Through TREES, Francis was taught the simple Forest Garden Approach of combining trees and food crops to improve the quality of his land and better his life with more income and food. Just one year into the project, Francis had started seeing a change in his harvests. He was harvesting vegetables like tomatoes and cabbages for home consumption and even sold some at the village market.
“I was so impressed with the project because I started taking some of my children back to school by the end of the first year,” Francis remarks. “By the middle of 2018, all my children were back in school and I could see the value of this project.”
Francis’ hard work was paying off and he was happy with his decision to join TREES.
“We have much more food at home now and my Forest Garden has grown so much,” he says.