EnsetAI Carbon Agroforestry Initiative
Indigenous-Informed AI to scale Women-Led Regenerative Agriculture
Meet Enset
Historic Milestone Enset Collaboration
In 2023, Alabaster helped secure a groundbreaking partnership between Kenya and Ethiopia, marking a historic step in Enset research and cultivation.
This alliance enabled the first-ever inter-country collaboration to scale Enset as a new food security crop in the region.
- Innovate Research
- Nutritional Impact
- Farmer Engagement
- Cross-border scale
Milestones
We integrate science, community engagement & extension support to facilitate & rapidly scale the adoption of regenerative Enset-based agroforestry practices
-
Sensitization & Adoption - Introduced Enset-based foods in five new regions, assessing local taste preferences and acceptance, and training 1000 indigenous female smallholder farmers on Enset regenerative agricultural practices.
-
Research & Development - Developed the first-ever reproducible tissue culture for eight cultivated and wild Enset varieties, enabling mass reproduction of disease-free seedlings
-
Women-Led Enset Enterprises - Launched five women-owned Enset-based enterprises, impacting 5000 households in Kenya and Ethiopia
-
Community Empowerment - Established five community Enset nurseries in Kenya & Ethiopia, impacting over 10,000 people – serves as demonstration plots for training and seedling source
Our Solution
Alabaster International and Nature For Justice, in partnership with the Government of Ethiopia and Arba Minch University, are launching a transformative Enset-based regenerative agroforestry project.
Through carbon financing, the initiative will empower up to 3 million households—primarily women farmers—to cultivate 500,000 hectares of Enset agroforestry, advancing food security and generating sustainable carbon credits.
Powered by AI and indigenous knowledge, the EnsetAI mobile platform—co-designed by farmers and developed with Deep Impact AI—will support scalable, climate-resilient agriculture across Ethiopia and East Africa.
Project Highlights
Food Security
- Enset is a drought-resilient, high-yield crop that ensures a year-round food supply, reducing hunger and malnutrition.
- Diversified agroforestry systems (Enset, fruit, coffee) provide multiple food and income sources and reduce dependence on vulnerable monocultures.
- AI-powered yield and harvesting precision ensures stable food source
Livelihood Improvement
- Empowers up to 3 million smallholder HH with sustainable income from agroforestry products and carbon credit revenues.
- Creates jobs in agroforestry, carbon monitoring, and market access services.
- Enhances rural resilience by reducing reliance on volatile cash crops like khat.
Agricultural Productivity & Digital Equity
- Promotes regenerative agroforestry through predictive AI, restoring soil fertility and reducing land degradation.
- Improves water retention and drought resistance through deep-rooted Enset and tree integration powered by access to EnsetAI
- Enhances biodiversity and ecosystem services while maintaining long-term farm productivity.
Carbon Sequestration
- Generates up to 210 million carbon credits over 30 years, making agriculture a climate solution.
- Sequesters up to 17.5 tCO₂e per hectare per year, restoring degraded lands.
- Carbon credit income provides long-term finance to support farmers undertaking regenerative Enset-based agroforestry, and enables ongoing scale-up
- Long-term carbon invesetment maintained through EnsetAI mobile platform calcluations, tracking, and cultivation best practices