The plant nursery is used to supply communities with trees that will provide food, income, fodder, wood, fences, and environmental protection. Often, a rural plant nursery produces about 1000 trees per year. In order to have a successful plant nursery, it is advised to plant trees for which there is a high demand. These types of trees bring more income to the owner of the nursery 

Here is some advice about establishing a rural plant nursery:

1. Before establishing the nursery, the nursery must be protected with dead wood or with a live fence.
2. A well, which can supply good quality water, is required.
3. Access to a compost pit is required. 
4. To ensure a good development of trees, access to shade is required, otherwise the plants will not develop well. The shade of trees is not optimal because the light under the tree is often too dim.
5. In order to facilitate work in a nursery, the plants, the well and the compost pit must be arranged in a way so as to make the work easy.
6. In the nursery, it is recommended to use plastic sacks in order to establish trees. The sacks are filled with a mixture of 2 doses of fine sand for a dose of compost.  
7. It is often necessary to protect fruit trees against insects and diseases. 
8. The key equipment in a nursery is a grafting knife, plastic ribbon, and sharpening stone.
9. Grafting is a good approach to improve the quality of plant material particularly for fruit trees.
10. Grafting is a method for plant propagation whereby the plant material (the scion) from one species or variety is fused with the rootstock of another species or variety. One of the methods consists in cutting the bark in a T shape in the rootstock. In this T, the scion will be introduced and a good contact between the scion and the rootstock is secured by tying them together with a plastic band. Subsequently, the grafted plant will be covered with a plastic sack. This method is appropriate for trees of the citrus family.
11. Grafting is difficult to achieve if the tree from which the scion is originating is in bloom.
12. Before planting the trees in the field or an orchard, they have to be gradually accustomed to grow under natural conditions. Watering is reduced in the last weeks before planting and the trees are more exposed to the sun. The trees need to be watered very well in the last days before planting them.

The establishment of trees in the fields is difficult. In order to minimize the need for watering, the best time to plant trees is the months of July and August. The animals that come to browse the trees can also create problems in the course of the first years. In order to avoid this problem, the trees need to be protected by for example using thorny branches. Another method consists in mixing manure with water and glue. This mixture is applied on the plants by using a brush. The plants must be treated two to three times a year. A test carried out at ICRISAT demonstrated the efficiency of this method (source: D. Pasternak).

It is often necessary to prune the trees one or two years after planting. If the fruit trees are not pruned, the fruits will be small and it is also difficult to spray efficiently.

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