EnsetAI for Climate-Resilient Food Systems in Ethiopia
Summary
In 2025, Alabaster International and Deep Impact AI committed to scaling climate-resilient food systems in Ethiopia through EnsetAI, an AI-powered mobile platform supporting the expansion of Enset agroforestry. Enset, a drought-tolerant, indigenous crop cultivated primarily by women, is a powerful solution to rising food insecurity driven by climate change and monoculture farming. From 2025 to 2028, the initiative will support 20,000 rural households, impacting 100,000 individuals directly and more than 1 million indirectly, across Gamo-Gofa, Gedeo, Burji-Amaro, Dawro, and southwest Shewa. Developed in collaboration with Enset farmers, EnsetAI will deliver real-time planting guidance, disease detection, and carbon sequestration data to enable farmers to access carbon financing. Key milestones include the release of EnsetAI, Ethiopia’s first carbon feasibility study for Enset, and the establishment of 10,000 hectares of biodiverse Enset gardens. With strong support from the Ethiopian government, this commitment empowers women, promotes digital equity, and unlocks climate finance to transform Ethiopia’s food systems.
Approach
This initiative aims to scale Enset agroforestry systems to 20,000 rural households throughout Ethiopia to enhance food security and climate resilience, particularly amongst female smallholders who are disproportionately impacted by hunger in the region. With support from the Ethiopian Government and Arba Minch University, the initiative will promote biodiversity and support digital equity, merging cutting-edge AI technology with Indigenous farmer knowledge.
To support households in adopting Enset agroforestry, Alabaster and Deep Impact will co-develop EnsetAI, a farmer-centric mobile platform leveraging AI technology. The platform will provide: guides for Enset cultivation and optimal yield, disease identification, long-range climate alerts, and carbon sequestration estimates. EnsetAI will be developed with Enset farmers’ input, ensuring it is accessible and culturally appropriate.
Preliminary carbon sequestration analyses conducted by Alabaster in partnership with Nature For Justice indicate strong potential for carbon financing. The benefits of carbon sequestration and improved agricultural practices would not occur under a “business-as-usual” scenario, as farmers currently lack the financial resources to establish regenerative Enset agroforestry gardens or transition from monoculture crops without external support, such as from carbon revenues. While some farmers practice agroforestry, fewer than 20% employ the full suite of methods necessary for optimal carbon capture (Teklu et al., 2023) .
This financing will enable farmers to cultivate biodiverse gardens, integrating Enset, fruit, and coffee trees, expanding into new geographic zones, and creating new carbon sinks that would not exist otherwise. Integrating Enset with woody tree species increases carbon storage per hectare compared to baseline monoculture systems. The support provided by this initiative (training, seedlings, farm inputs) on farmer-owned land directly enables this transition, making the resulting carbon benefits entirely additional.
By combining carbon financing and Indigenous-informed AI technology, this initiative lays the foundation for widespread Enset agroforestry adoption, establishing 10,000 hectares of Enset agroforestry systems throughout Ethiopia.
Action Plan
Phase 1, from September 2025 to March 2026, will include the development of the EnsetAI V1 mobile application with three main functions: climate alerts, carbon sequestration calculations, and farmer-specific plant estimations. This will also include beta testing of the app with limited users in Arba Minch, Ethiopia, to understand technological requirements and logistics, and overall app functioning in the field. Concurrently, the carbon feasibility study will be launched, resulting in an Enset agroforestry project note to be pitched to carbon investors.
Phase 2, from April 2026 to December 2026, will include further beta testing of the EnsetAI V1 and progression to V2 of the app, introducing farmer training guides for Enset cultivation and disease assessment, utilizing computer vision. Beta testing for V2 will also begin during this time, with limited users in Ethiopia. Voluntary carbon market certification process will be initiated and finalized during this time.
Phase 3, from January 2027 to June 2027, will include the release of the final version of EnsetAI to 1,000 Enset Farmer Ambassadors to begin utilizing this to scale new Enset agroforestry gardens to 5,000 households. During this time, carbon investor pitches and initial Enset agroforestry will begin, providing 60 Enset seedlings per household from our tissue culture lab, with avocado, apple, and coffee seedlings from local nurseries. Necessary farm tools and fencing, borehole access, and soil amendments will also be provided, alongside extension training services for new Enset farmers, via Enset Ambassadors, establishing 2500ha of new Enset gardens.
Phase 4, from July 2027 to December 2028, will include the full deployment of EnsetAI to 15,000 new farmers and successful procurement of carbon investment for the initiative, with the ability to then more rapidly scale Enset agroforestry systems to 15,000 rural households and establish an additional 7500ha of Enset gardens.
Background
Food insecurity impacted by climate change has become a dire issue in Africa, highlighting the need for innovative and climate-smart agricultural solutions. Of the 730 million people who are chronically hungry around the globe, 1 in 5 reside in Africa, and 60% are women (FAO, 2024) . In Ethiopia, food security is increasingly under threat as its agricultural system remains heavily reliant on monoculture cereal farming, which is highly vulnerable to intensifying droughts and erratic rainfall. Economic pressures often drive rural farmers to convert traditional plantations to cash crops, resulting in declining soil fertility, land degradation, and reduced food availability (GHI, 2023) . Financial, institutional, and market barriers prevent farmers from adopting climate-smart, regenerative agroforestry practices that could restore degraded lands and strengthen food security.
Alabaster International’s new Enset Initiative focuses on scaling climate-resilient food systems in Ethiopia, utilizing carbon financing and AI technology. Ensete ventricosum, commonly known as Enset, is a banana-like, versatile, and drought-tolerant crop that can be harvested year-round, withstanding temperature, altitudinal, and rainfall changes (Borrell et al., 2019) . An indigenous crop to Ethiopia, Enset is currently only cultivated and consumed as food in southern Ethiopia. Despite being used as a sustainable food source for over 20 million people, Enset remains an underutilized and untapped food source in Ethiopia (Koch et al., 2022) . Enset is underutilized largely due to historical, cultural, and systemic barriers rather than agronomic limitations. Despite being a cousin of the banana and having similar ecological potential, it has never been widely adopted outside Ethiopia, largely due to a lack of international awareness, policy support, and cross-border sharing mechanisms until 2024, when Alabaster facilitated the first-ever cross-border sharing of Enset between Ethiopia and Kenya. In addition, its cultivation and harvesting processes are unique and require specialized Indigenous knowledge, which hasn’t been formally documented for widespread adoption.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
Alabaster International and Deep Impact AI are seeking partners to provide mobile devices, sensors, and software to develop and scale the EnsetAI platform to support Enset agroforestry systems. Alabaster is also seeking media support to bring visibility to the initiative, particularly to highlight its partnership with the Ethiopian Government. Alabaster and Deep Impact are seeking funding partners to fund V2 of the EnsetAI app and its initial deployment to 1000 Enset Farmer Ambassadors. Alabaster is also seeking funding partners to fund the initial infrastructure, such as farmer inputs, needed to scale Enset agroforestry gardens in Ethiopia.,Alabaster and Deep Impact AI can provide best practices for combining AI technology with the knowledge of Indigenous farmers in Africa. In addition, Alabaster can provide expertise on carbon feasibility studies and carbon financing with a focus on empowering rural smallholder farmers in Africa. Alabaster can also share expertise on community development with an emphasis on gender inclusion and gender equity, including leveraging partnerships to enhance food security, female entrepreneurship, health, and climate resilience in rural areas of Africa.