Introducing My Agroforestry Project in Nigeria – Seeking Advice and Support

Hello everyone,
My name is Olabiyi Odunayo, from Nigeria. I am passionate about organic farming, agroforestry, environmental protection and sustainable agriculture.
I recently completed a 3-month training in organic farming with Mastercard Foundation and Songhai. I am now working toward developing my own sustainable farm project.
I have 1.7 hectares of farmland with a survey plan, which I plan to develop into an agroforestry and organic farming project. My vision is to establish oil palm, coconut and other orchard trees, together with suitable food crops and other beneficial plants.
One of my major goals is to contribute, in my own small way, to addressing the effects of climate change through tree planting, soil improvement, biodiversity and sustainable farming practices.
I also operate under my registered business name, Olabiyi Global Greenly Resources.
At the moment, I am looking for practical advice, mentorship, partnerships and possible financial support to help me develop the land into a productive and environmentally beneficial farm.
I would be grateful to learn from experienced permaculture farmers and agroforestry practitioners here. I am particularly interested in advice on farm design, tree selection, organic soil management, water management and establishing a sustainable agroforestry system in Nigeria.
Thank you for welcoming me to the community. I look forward to learning from you and sharing my progress.
Olabiyi Odunayo
Nigeria
Olabiyi Global Greenly Resources

Welcome to permies, Olabiyi! I have a small amount of land, similar to yours, and have been applying permaculture and agroforestry principles for many years. We have a cool temperate climate here, so many of the species and methods that are working for me won't be applicable to your location. But I do have bananas and taro growing, and maybe someday I can try to grow cacao.

Welcome to permies Odunayo!

My understanding is that you are more likely to have a shortage of good soil than rain in Nigeria? If so then you might want to consider Syntropic Agriculture methods on your land.
This video gives a little overview of a farm in New Zealand practicing it, but I understand it originated in Brazil:



The basic idea combines 'chop and drop' with succession planning to gain a harvest at each stage and build soil. There is a thread with other resources here

Welcome to the forum.

The folks on the forum love to answer question so ask away.

Phil Stevens wrote:Welcome to permies, Olabiyi! I have a small amount of land, similar to yours, and have been applying permaculture and agroforestry principles for many years. We have a cool temperate climate here, so many of the species and methods that are working for me won't be applicable to your location. But I do have bananas and taro growing, and maybe someday I can try to grow cacao.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome!  It’s great to connect with someone who’s been practicing permaculture and agroforestry for years. Our climates may be different, but I’m sure we can still learn a lot from each other. I’d love to hear more about your bananas and taro. Hopefully, you’ll get to grow cacao someday too!

Nancy Reading wrote:Welcome to permies Odunayo!

My understanding is that you are more likely to have a shortage of good soil than rain in Nigeria? If so then you might want to consider Syntropic Agriculture methods on your land.
This video gives a little overview of a farm in New Zealand practicing it, but I understand it originated in Brazil:

The basic idea combines 'chop and drop' with succession planning to gain a harvest at each stage and build soil. There is a thread with other resources here

Thank you for the warm welcome and for sharing this! I’m very interested in Syntropic Agriculture, especially the idea of building healthy soil while getting harvests along the way. I’ll definitely look into the resources you shared. Have you been practicing it yourself, and what has worked best for you?

Anne Miller wrote:Welcome to the forum.

The folks on the forum love to answer question so ask away.

Thank you for the warm welcome!  I’m happy to be here and looking forward to learning from everyone. I’ll definitely ask questions as I continue developing my farm. What area of permaculture are you most interested in?

Hello Adunayo, welcome to the forum. To get a bit of an idea of your farm/soil/climate/water situation    a  picture of it would be greatly appreciated. How long are you there already? And do you live on the land or do you commute? My terrain is at a few minutes, but this summer i had to put up a tent to give a deer the idea not to come and eat too much apples. It gave me a chance to practice a wolfhowl before sleeping. In the end, she just ate the lower branches and the fruit was dry and small and damage was not bad. i don't know what animals roam your plains. Or are you more in an urban area develloping a university plot?
I love syntropic agroforestry and try a bit of that myself. We have summer droughts so many trees wouldn't make it, so i had to find out what is drought hardy and make a windbreak with that. Turned out peach trees were that. I could get them for cheap, because i already had a lot, made a little nursery in a shady spot with a didge behind it in which rain water collected. I didn't have to water a lot, because i do not have a lot of it at hand. I have some, but in dry summers i run out and need to get in with a trailer and an IBC to fill up some tanks. So it's a hassle. But back to the peach trees i used them to make a windblock facing east west and it works. it blocks wind and i have less evaporation therefore. In their shade i have grown prune trees that would otherwise struggle. I think that's the most important plan think of ways to get through the hard times and be prepared to help install trees after they will just grow. And in Nigeria growth can be amazing i'm sure.
Then i've created some north-south fruit tree lines intertwined with robinia pseudoacacia, which i use as a nitrogenfixer and it grows very well so then i chop and drop it in place, but it suckers too much, so i look for a way to get Italian Alder in there, but that is quite hard to propagate or i have to buy all the trees.. But i want to be able to work with plants i can propagate myself, but that takes time to crack the code of how this partical variety in this climate/soil likes to be propagated in what season. It's always the same for farmers everywhere.
I'm on very poor soils and i try to find wintergroundcover nitrogenfixing and am excited to have found one so i can let that grow together with rye or something, hopefully this winter will work out and i'm planning to crimp that, like break/bend the stems so they're all laying down. Then it settles, slowly dies, doesn't set fruit and then i want to direct seed in there.. No water, no dig.
For me it's passion/idealism. I believe we're are going in a radical wrong movement with society, i cannot stop that but work to find ways to locally create something like a good example farmers can copy in a bigger style. Some of them agree and are looking for ways to change, but i am like experimenting with stuff they bring me. Sometimes rotten down strawbales, sometimes a lot of cow manure.
I think the principles i described can be useful and replicated everywhere, although you'll have problems i cannot even imagine with crazy energetic insects and maybe even gigantic animals coming to feast on your Agroforestry project.
Hoping to hear of you.