9–11 November 2026 | SUA Syntropic Living Lab, Morogoro, Tanzania
Learn how to combine cashew, citrus, and food crops in farming systems that improve soil health, support biodiversity, and produce food. This three-day APOPO HeroTREEs agroforestry training combines theory with field practice, taking you from farm design to planting and long-term management.
Led by Hannes Thaler, CEO of Forests4Farming and an agroforestry practitioner with more than 20 years of experience and hosted in partnership with My Birthday Tree Organisation (MBTO).
Open to farmers, students, agricultural professionals, and organizations. View location.
Fees: TZS 100,000 | Students: TZS 15,000
Food and drinking water included.
Payment can be made below.
What Will You Learn?
Syntropic Agroforestry combines food production with ecosystem restoration. It uses plant diversity, natural succession, and active management to build productive farms.
The training covers:
- Core principles: How plants support each other, occupy different vegetation layers, and succeed one another as a system develops.
- Farm design: Selecting complementary species, planning planting distances, and translating a design into a field layout.
- Cashew and citrus: Integrating these commercial crops with food crops, support trees, and biomass-producing plants.
- Annual crops: Applying syntropic principles and managing crops throughout the growing season.
- Pruning and soil care: Using strategic pruning, mulch, and continuous soil cover to improve soil conditions and support crop growth.
- Long-term management: Managing competition, light, and plant growth through each stage of a farm’s development.
Your Trainer: Hannes Thaler
Hannes Thaler, CEO of Forests4Farming, brings more than 20 years of agroforestry and farming experience, including work on his own farm in Brazil and training farmers across South America and Africa.
As a Master Trainer, he combines practical farming experience with an understanding of how natural ecosystems function. His approach draws on the principles developed by Ernst Götsch, the founder of Syntropic Agriculture.
REGISTER FOR THE THREE-DAY TRAINING
Put Your Agroforestry Training into Practice
Two days of field training at the SUA Syntropic Living Lab, Lugala Farm, Mazimbu Campus, will focus on establishing and managing cashew and citrus systems, with annual crops and fast-growing support plants.
Working with Hannes and the agroforestry training team, you will turn a farm design into a planting layout and gain practical experience in establishing and managing the system.
Developed jointly by APOPO and SUA, the Living Lab supports demonstration, practical learning, and long-term research on regenerative agriculture. Farmers, students, and researchers can return to observe how the systems develop and continue learning.
Schedule and What to Bring
Monday, 9 November | Theory | 09:00–17:00
SUA National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC), Morogoro. View location
Tuesday–Wednesday, 10–11 November | Field training | 08:00–16:00 each day
SUA Syntropic Living Lab, Lugala Farm, Mazimbu Campus, Morogoro.
Further location details and transport arrangements will be shared with registered participants. Bring comfortable field clothes, suitable footwear, and appropriate working gear.
Payment details
Bank: CRDB Bank
Account Name: My Birthday Tree Organization-Syntropic
Account Number: 10377930067
REGISTER FOR THE THREE-DAY TRAINING
Questions? Contact haji.khamis@apopo.org.
Organized by APOPO HeroTREEs through its Syntropic Agroforestry Innovation Accelerator (SAIA), in partnership with My Birthday Tree Organisation (MBTO). SAIA connects farmers, universities, NGOs, and agricultural professionals through training, demonstration farms, research, and knowledge sharing, making syntropic agroforestry more accessible and supporting a community of practitioners.