Twenty years…

What began with a single garden has become a network of farmers and communities that continue to expand beyond the program itself. That durability comes from long-term relationships, local leadership, and an approach designed to grow from within.

Over twenty years, DIG has refined this into a proven model: farmer-led learning groups that strengthen food security, restore soil, and build resilient local food systems.

Now, we’re focused on scaling our reach without ever losing what makes DIG work.

…and still growing

Today, DIG serves more than 35,000 people a year. With your investment, we can increase that to 143,000+ by 2030.

Kenya

Expanding Farmer Field Schools and partnering with government health systems to improve nutrition outcomes for malnourished children.

Senegal

Growing Farmer Field Schools and our Priority Household Program across the Casamance, reaching people living with HIV, people living with disabilities, formally displaced communities, and women facing multiple layers of exclusion.

Uganda

Deepening work with the Batwa and other marginalized communities through regenerative agriculture, soil restoration, biodiversity and land conservation programs.

DIG partners with farmers too often overlooked by others.

Farmers’ leadership is key to building food systems that feed whole communities.

The farmers we partner with include Indigenous groups like the Batwa, people living with HIV, people with disabilities, and families facing chronic food insecurity. They have the most to gain, but also the deepest commitment to the work.

DIG pairs field-based work with ongoing research to understand what’s working and why.

DIG’s approach is backed by peer-reviewed research and recognized by leading global institutions.

DIG received the Farmer Field School Innovation Award from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recognizing its community-led approach to sustainable agriculture

Research conducted in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) examines how DIG program improves health and nutrition outcomes for people living with HIV. (Under review with PLOS Global Health.)

DIG’s participatory research, published in Frontiers Public Health, reveals how our target communities experience the ecological, social, and spiritual dimensions of environmental change, and reinforced support for agroecology and locally-governed food systems.

Read the Frontiers Research Article

A DIG garden is holistic.

Our core programs, Farmer Field Schools, the Priority Household Program, and our Indigenous Food Preservation Project support this work at different stages, based on what communities need most.

Farmers test and adopt regenerative farming practices, learning from and teaching each other over time. The results are more than a garden; they are a system that improves soil, increases food access and nutrition, and strengthens both household and community stability.

“Locally-led” isn’t a talking point. It’s how DIG is built.

In Kenya, Uganda, and Senegal, DIG operates as independent, locally led chapters, each with its own leadership and in-country board. Decisions are made close to the ground, where they belong. DIG’s global team plays a supporting role: resourcing chapters, strengthening alignment, and maintaining rigor behind the model.

DIG, now more than ever.

DIG has spent twenty years proving our model works. We are ready to quadruple our reach through locally-led chapters, built to last. Your investment will make all the difference.

Join Us

Twenty Years & Still Growing

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