Selected Topic

Promoting sustainable production and food sovereignty.

Project Description

Smallholder families using the Inga alley-cropping system have crops that survive during the worst heat, droughts, and hurricanes. The Inga tree alleys survive 7 months of drought and stop all erosion and mudslides–while positively addressing 12 of the 17 United Nations SDGs with no negative impact whatsoever on the remaining 5. This low-input, debt-free, and bottom-up program is available now and gives families the means to achieve “land for life,” farming their plots with truly sustainable agricultural practices. Inga Alley Cropping is not just an alternative to the cutting/ burning of tropical rainforests, it is an integrated solution to stopping it altogether.

About the Institution

The Inga Foundation pioneers the revolutionary agricultural system of Inga Alley Cropping (the Inga Tree Model) to address environmentally destructive slash and burn agriculture and food insecurity. Since 2012, the Inga Foundation’s simple agroforestry system of Inga Alley Cropping in Honduras has empowered over 450+ families planting over 6 million trees — dramatically transforming their lives and landscapes..The ability of the resilient Inga tree to anchor, enrich, and regenerate depleted soil provides food security with 100% success for families with 2 year-old alleys. These fast-growing, native Inga species which fix nitrogen in the soil, provide organic cash crops as well as reduce global carbon emissions, protect wildlife and marine habitats, preserve water sources, and yield a year’s worth of renewable firewood. The basic grains/cash crops are grown without herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, fossil fuels, or heavy equipment. The Inga tree alleys survive 7 months of drought, stop all erosion and mudslides, and protect watersheds. This low-input, debt-free, and bottom-up program of organic regenerative agroforestry is available now and gives families the means to achieve “land for life,” farming their plots with truly sustainable agricultural practices.