Community Fruit Tree and Medicinal Herb Nurseries

As we see the fruits of this year’s harvest coming off the trees (as we write), it is a great time to reflect on the progress the HAF tree-planting project has made over the past decade. Since 2003, we have planted nearly 700,000 trees (about 18 times the number of trees in New York City’s Central Park), impacting about 5,000 marginalized rural families. This year we have made great strides in both our tree planting initiative and the crucial effort to get land organic certification.

What you’ve helped us accomplish so far this year:

 We surpassed our previous record, planting over 235,000 fruit tress with Moroccan communities in one planting season. 100,000 walnut seeds and 15,000 almonds were planted in a community nursery in the rural commune of Toubkal in Taroudant Province. 50,000 fruit saplings were planted in a nursery at the historic cultural site of Akraich in Al Haouz Province, and in the arid Rhamna province, 12,000 olive trees irrigated with pressure-drip systems and 70,000 cactus were planted. HAF planted and distributed an additional 4,000 trees with rural children at 25 primary schools, introducing the next generation to lessons in environmental conservation.

HAF interviewed and worked with 820 family farmers to inspect their land, teaching organic farming techniques and business planning with these stakeholders. Next week, organic certifiers will come to inspect the land; once the certification is finalized, HAF will connect the farmers directly to the  Vinternational market, where organic nuts have double the economic value.

 Looking Forward:

 With the help of new partnerships and your support, we are settling ourselves up for an even bigger harvest, with more certified organic product in the coming years. With OES (Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental Scientific Affairs) partnership, we hope to plant 250,000 almond and walnut seeds and 70,000 medicinal plants in 4 nurseries this year, all on organic certified land.  Your support is CRUCIAL to enable these goals.

 Please continue to support our Organic Fruit Agriculture project and help us achieve our 1 Million Tree goal! This is our year.

The planting season is in the winter in the High Atlas Mountains. But don't let this make you believe that we aren't as busy in the off season as we are in the planting season. In fact, we might be even busier. This is because we are turning the trees planted into a great source of income for farmers who have been unable to compete with international market prices, leaving them in poverty.  

Ironically, due to the local stakeholder’s inability to invest in pesticides, 70% of the land surveyed for this project is uncontaminated and ready for organic production. HAF and its partners have planted nearly 200,000 walnut and almond trees in the region. HAF has developed a model to support over 3,500 households in the Tadmamt and Al Haouz Provinces in the High Atlas Mountains to harvest, produce, and sell organic walnut and almonds for organic export. Here is how it works: HAF assists rural communities through the entire agricultural development cycle – from tree nurseries, irrigation, training, organic certification, and marketing – combining to increase household incomes on average of 400%, with resounding local and national development impact both economically and in terms of infrastructure, as entrepreneurship and value-add production capacity grows as the project comes to scale.

HAF is working with a team of agricultural experts that are going household to household in the rural mountains of the Northern Atlas to assess the trees and soil of each family. After the assessment and an audit, crops will be certified for organic sales in the US and Europe. Only then does the realy work begin, with collection, quality control, transport, packaging, and sales to international buyers. 

This project has enormous implications for economic and community improvement, as farmers will work together in federation to gain access to greater market prices.

Initial investment costs are high, but the return is so big, that we at HAF ask our partners to support in any way that they can to make the first harvest (which starts in September) profitable and sustainable. 

Thank you so much for helping us get this far. HAF is committed to the full project-cycle, and we hope you are too. 

Links:

• Foundation Website

Thanks to you, as well as generous funding from the Alliance for Global Giving, we were able to surpass our goal of 50,000 trees by planting 100,000 walnut trees and 14,000 almond trees. The caviat -- we must certify these trees to be organic, so that their produce can be sold at high profit for export. 

We have begun this process by sending a team of two agricultural experts and a participatory trainer to the Tifnoute to map the land on which the trees are being planted and ensure that they are viable for organic certification. This is a long and meticulous process that will take about six months, especially since we are covering over 50 acres of mountainous land! We are so pleased to share this development, and to let you know that your support is going to something bigger than just planting trees - it is going to ensure sustainable incomes for years to come in the Tifnoute, which will be a model for other planting projects throughout Morocco.

Links:

• Plant with the People

We are pleased to report the great success we've had in planting high quality and productive trees in Tadmamt, thanks to you! A total of 30,000 Walnut trees have been successfully grafted and planted, with an additional 20,000 cherry trees over the past year.  

The walnut trees came from healthy transplants of two varieties of Bulgaria Walnut (Dryanovo and Chyanovo, that inhabit the lands of Tadmamt). The rootstock from the nut trees adapted to the local environmental conditions rapidly, producing high quality nuts and early production. 

This project is based on the fundamental principles of the `National Development Initiative Humans (NHRI) and of the High Atlas Foundation. Planting trees doesn't just mean crop, shade and commodity. It means empowering local stakeholders to care for their land, take control of their livelihood and plan for a better future. Dividing the land terraces, building irrigation systems, nurserys and planting was conducted in partnership and consultation with all concerned citizens. They have taken part in true sustainable development of their land. 

While we've reached our target goal, we plan to continue to rehabilitate and cultivation five to seven terraces, construct the basin of accumulation of water and to install drip irrigation system to preserve water supply. 

There is always more to be done in this incredibly impoverished (both financially and resource-wise) land. With your support, an additional 50,000 walnut trees will be planted in a new extension (see below) giving life to the region in so many ways. 

At this time of year, HAF prepares projects for the upcoming planting season, which will begin when the rainy weather arrives.

GOOD NEWS:

While planting 458,492 trees in 9 years, HAF has been looking into ways to add value to the yield. 

Currently, a team has been busy working out the details of a value-added project for the walnuts and almonds being harvested at several HAF project sites, and HAF has just been awarded one of four Alliance for Global Good’s Innovation fund Prizes, which will enable HAF to obtain organic certification. (Details below)

Now, your contributions will go further than just planting trees. The yield from those trees will create jobs and additional income for community members.

PLEASE CONSIDER making a RECURRING DONATION to this increasingly beneficial project.  

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HAF Seeking Organic Certification:  

As part of a new initiative, HAF has undertaken obtaining organic certification for the walnut and almond crops from High Atlas villages.

In September, HAF led nut specialists and entrepreneurs, a photographer and a technician from Morocco's Ministry of Agriculture on a week-long tour to study the current crops and systems and determine what steps will be necessary in order to obtain certification for these farmers. The expedition is described in detail in this HAF blog: http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/blogs/308-Hafs-harvest-and-organic-certification 

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HAF Wins an Alliance for Global Good's Innovation Fund prize:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Innovation Fund Winners Announced 

Four Nonprofits Selected For Project Funding

Winners use best-in-class combination of nonprofit mission and business models for sustainable social good.

Greensboro, NC – A path to prosperity for the poorest of Morocco's rural farmers through organic certification. … These are the proposals that were selected from nearly 50 applicants to be the [4] inaugural grantees of the Alliance for Global Good's Innovation Fund.     ...

High Atlas Foundation | | Morocco 

• Challenge: How to grow earned income of resident client population, as well as create source of
  sustainable revenue for organizational needs. 
• Solution: Obtain organic certification for residents’ agricultural products and create supply chain that
  eliminates middle man, thereby increasing revenue generated many times over, allowing both organization and target population to benefit.

To learn more about this prize, read HAF's blog post:  http://www.highatlasfoundation.org/blogs/312-haf-innovation-fund-winner-of-the-alliance-for-global-good

Attached please see photos taken during a recent tour of these projects earlier in September.

• Walnut processing photos (PDF)