Protecting Vegetable Crops with Live Borders in Tanzania

How do you protect a vegetable plot? With a wall? A fence? 

How about growing a protective barrier instead?

Our field teams in Tanzania are teaching vegetable farmers to plant living barriers around their crops. These natural borders, usually consisting of corn or sorghum, act as a windbreak for the shorter vegetable crops and keep the vegetable plants and fruits from being eaten by roaming livestock, such as cows and goats. Best of all, border crops are part of an integrated pest management (IPM) approach, reducing damage to the vegetable plot from insect pests by impeding the spread of insects from the surrounding environment.

Protective, living barriers in the form of border crops are just one of the sustainable vegetable production techniques that East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation is bringing to farmers in Africa and Asia. 

To learn more about our work in Tanzania, visit our Tanzania page.