Her Farm, Our Future: How Rehema is Growing a Sustainable Tomorrow

Selling her surplus fruit locally will contribute to her community's access to healthy, diverse food

At the same time, Rehema participates in a carbon program that compensates farmers for planting and maintaining trees that will, with time, capture carbon. At this stage, as her trees grow, Rehema receives survival payments as a financial incentive for keeping them alive and growing.

"I remember receiving my first survival payment while at the market. The mobile money came at the perfect time, and I used it to buy household items." Rehema says.

For the trees Rehema planted in 2022, she receives an annual survival payment of Tsh 450 per tree, averaging about $17 USD per 100 trees. In 2025, she used the payment to join a local savings-and-loan group. She has also used some of the payments throughout the years to pay casual laborers when she needs extra support with weeding or harvesting on her farm.

As her newer trees continue to grow, she expects to receive payments over the next three years, followed by carbon payments in the decades to come if all goes well.

Inspiring change

"Being among the first adopters of planting trees for the carbon program, I am an ambassador and an inspiration to other farmers to plant trees," Rehema says.

Her neighbors come to her farm to see her crops, the healthy soil, and the trees that line her farm. Through these visits, they learn firsthand how careful farming, diversification, and environmental stewardship can also improve their livelihoods.

Women like Rehema make up a large percentage of Africa's farmers, and when they succeed, the benefits ripple out. Healthier farms mean stronger harvests, more food security, and more stable incomes. For farm families, those stronger harvests then mean better nutrition, children in school since parents can afford school fees, and households building resilience against unpredictable weather and market fluctuations.

We are grateful that in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, we are able to invest even more in young people in nine of the countries where we operate to access interventions, like those Rehema has used to build her farm. Rehema's story highlights the impact that access to agricultural programs such tree seedling distribution, soil improving products, and carbon payment systems can have. It also reminds us of the ripple benefits of supporting women, especially during the UN's International Year of the Woman Farmer.