One Acre Fund
By the end of 2020, One Acre Fund will serve 1.26 million farmers — and create an estimated $96 in new income for every client family. The One Acre for Countries unit, which serves additional farmers through public and private partnerships, enabled 3.2 million farmer interventions across several countries, equating to 30 percent year-over year growth.
Main photo caption: Since enrolling with One Acre Fund in 2016 farmer Esta Kanyombwe from Tanzania has increased her maize harvest and is now selling her surplus. / One Acre Fund
Project
Highlights
One Acre Fund’s model supplies smallholder farmers with the financing and training they need to grow their way out of hunger and poverty. One Acre Fund is working to expand its services to reach 20 percent of all smallholder families in eight countries. This will directly serve 1.98 million farm families per year, plus another 2.9 million families a year through partners, transforming entire countrywide and regional agricultural systems, and unleashing a powerful catalyst for ending global poverty in our lifetime.
One Acre Fund released its first-ever annual “holistic impact scorecard,” covering metrics across the three categories of its vision: big harvests, healthy families and rich soils. It found that nearly all country programs are delivering impacts beyond simply profit per farmer, with the most mature country programs, such as Kenya and Rwanda, furthest ahead.
One Acre Fund continues to double down on efforts to strengthen farmer resilience against climate change, market volatility and other unexpected shocks, which has been particularly critical during the pandemic. This includes initiatives to help farmers diversify their crops and incomes, significant growth in agroforestry work and new technology to give farmers more information and control over their livelihoods.
Supporting Farmers
One Acre Fund field officers share insights from their front-line response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One Acre Fund bought soap for each farmer enrolled in the program. Can you imagine that? I was on the forefront distributing this soap and also showing farmers how to wash their hands and ensure that they keep safe. The fear is rising day by day and it is a threat, because as a field officer, I interact with many farmers. I’m practicing social distancing and also travel with hand sanitizer provided by One Acre Fund.”
“It is important for farmers to continue producing food despite this COVID-19, because food security still remains a vital issue for farmers. The biggest fear we have is that we may contract [the disease] during our farmer visits. To minimize the risk, we are training farmers. This week I’m proud because most of the farmers I manage know about COVID-19 and and how to prevent it.”
“I’m proud of changing the lives of many families by ensuring that, despite COVID-19, I have delivered all inputs to farmers regardless of the challenges I faced. One-hundred percent of my farmers have planted food, and are now eating. I feel sure as we continue to fight COVID-19, my farmers will not be victims of hunger and poverty at the end of the season.”
“African farmers embody resilience and adaptation. Every day, they have the resilience to deal with impossible adversity and to somehow earn better lives for their children. This year, One Acre Fund was inspired to show that same resilience and adaptation. Thank you, Audacious, for being the steady rock that enabled us to do this.”
