New roots, more milk: Kenya’s journey into a climate-resilient future

In a nursery along the Nakuru–Eldoret highway, Verna Violet Angehi does more than keep seedlings alive. She is putting a tree that has grown in this soil for centuries back to work – and it is helping dairy farmers in one of Kenya's driest regions get through the lean months.

Verna Violet Angehi is kneeling in the dirt, two conifers’ seedlings in her hands, checking the roots before she puts them aside. She is getting a batch ready for a pickup later this afternoon. Everything needs to be ready by then.

The nursery behind her is full – rows of pots stretching along the Nakuru–Eldoret highway in the southwest of Kenya, more than 10,000 seedlings in stock at any given time, dozens of species from avocado, cypress and Kenya’s famous baobab tree to fodder trees for the region's dairy farmers. It is part of the Nurseries for Youth Development Project (NYDP). 

When Verna started to work in nurseries, her job was mostly about keeping seedlings alive and selling them. After two years in the NYDP, it has become something else too: explaining people which trees help her neighbours' farms — and their cows — get through a harder climate.

For decades, Kenyan nurseries have mostly grown a handful of fast-selling species, often imported, often poorly suited to the local climate. The trees that are actually adapted to these conditions had largely fallen out of use, and the knowledge of how to grow them had not been passed on. And the customer didn’t know their advantages. This is precisely where NYDP comes in.

It was a course in November 2024, run by the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) as part of the project's capacity-building programme, that changed how she saw her work. Alongside tree species, agrobiodiversity, soil health and sustainable management practices, Verna learned about the benefits of the apple-ring acacia (Faidherbia albida) – knowledge that would shape her work in the nursery going forward.

Verna's nursery has built a reputation for more than just seedlings. It has built a loyal customer base through organic production methods including biodegradable potting bags, competitive pricing, and consistent after-sales support. The kind that brings farmers back rather than just once. 

The nursery also runs regular group meetings for local cooperatives, like the Tulwobmoi dairy cooperative society. During these events Verna introduces what the nursery offers and, more importantly, explains why certain trees work.  

As Verna tells it, a woman in one of the meetings listened closely and bought a few seedlings afterwards. Months later, she came back to the nursery — this time to buy more. Her cows, she told Verna, were now giving noticeably more milk since she had started supplementing their feed with the trees' foliage.

For Verna, that moment showed her what her work can actually achieve: not just selling seedlings but passing on knowledge that benefits families directly — while also contributing to restoring Kenya's tree diversity.

Five youth-led nurseries are now in active production across Kenya. The NYDP has trained 22 nursery managers and staff, and more than half of the management positions are held by women.

It is also working with Kenya's Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) to bring fodder trees to more farming communities. A development that should make stories like Verna's and her customer's more common in the future.

In Nakuru, Verna is waiting for her customer to collect his conifers. The nursery is a place where both come together for her: the practical everyday work and a growing awareness that the trees best suited to Kenya's farms and climate aren't always the ones the market expects. It just took someone willing to pass the knowledge on.

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