Helping hard-working subsistence farm families gain food security and economic opportunity
Locations Served
Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
Budget
$246,000,000
Partner Since
2012
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Problem
Over half the world’s poorest people are subsistence farmers. Smallholder farming is the primary livelihood for 70% of Africa’s poor, yet most of these farmers do not employ techniques best suited to increasing their agricultural output, and many have little knowledge or capacity to improve their depleted lands. Virtually none have a path to accumulating modest wealth at a level that would allow them to deal with calamities brought on by weather, blight, health or otherwise, nor do they have the resources to take advantage of opportunities such as education for their children or diversification of income by starting small businesses.
As a result, most of Africa’s rural smallholders struggle to grow enough to feed their families, finding themselves trapped in a continuous cycle of low yields, hunger, and poverty. In much of rural East Africa, one in ten children dies before the age of five, with most deaths due to malnutrition; 40% of those surviving become physically and/or mentally stunted for lack of a sufficient, diversified diet, unable to reach their full potential.
Programs Offered
One Acre Fund supplies financing and training to help smallholder farmers grow their way out of hunger and build lasting pathways to prosperity. Treated as customers, farmers receive high-quality seed, environmentally appropriate fertilizer, crop insurance, funeral insurance, ongoing farming advice, and go-to-market assistance. The direct cost of these goods and services is treated as a loan, with farmers expected to repay the “advance” from a portion of the profits generated by selling their new or heightened crop surplus at market – profits that make possible the family’s investment in food security and diversity, children’s education, health care, and supplemental income-generating initiatives. A high rate of loan repayment enables One Acre Fund to grow substantially without a perpetual dependence on philanthropic support as the exclusive source of funding. (Investments in locally relevant agricultural research, monitoring and evaluation, relations with government ministries, and development of additional service lines remain largely funded by donations.)
Beyond food security, farm families need assets to protect against unexpected costs and to allow for investments in their futures. One Acre Fund has found tree-planting to be the most effective asset-accumulation vehicle for rural households. Tree-planting provides a “savings plan” for participating farmers, as well as benefiting the environment by refreshing depleted soil, protecting against erosion, and sequestering carbon. By planting locally appropriate species for timber, within 7-10 years trees have grown to be quite valuable in a continent that is a net importer of lumber. Other species are planted for their soil-improving attributes. Fruit or nut trees are included to diversify income with produce that is less susceptible to weather variations and blight than annual crops.
As of 2024, One Acre Fund farmers have planted over 250 million trees across nine countries, putting the organization on track to achieve its audacious goal of 1 billion trees by 2030. Focusing Philanthropy is a key partner in this effort through its Bold Initiative launched in 2019 to engage more than 5 million farmers in large-scale agroforestry across sub-Saharan Africa. The 250 millionth tree was planted in April 2024 during Phase 1 of the campaign, and the even more ambitious Phase 2 (750 million additional trees) is now underway. Program refinements – such as shifting from distributing tree seeds to seedlings via 4,000+ decentralized, farmer-managed nurseries – have dramatically improved germination rates and accessibility for farmers. The number of tree species offered has expanded from just one or two per market to often 5+ varieties–each selected by agroforestry experts and confirmed by real world farmer demand–to best fit local ecological requirements and market needs. This initiative generates long-term asset accumulation for farm families, improves farmer resiliency to various climate and weather related shocks, and contributes to climate resilience by sequestering significant amounts of carbon (over 11 million metric tons captured to date).
Historical Results
Started in 2006 serving 38 farm families in western Kenya, by 2024 One Acre Fund was serving over 5 million farm families across nine sub-Saharan African countries – with more than 27 million farm family members now benefiting from improved food security and higher incomes, effectively lifting them out of starvation poverty. And these farmers produce enough surplus food to feed several million more of their neighbors each year.
One Acre Fund maintains impressive results across its key performance metrics:
- Farmers on the program double their harvest yields on average compared to their prior output.
- Participants see roughly a 40%+ increase in farm income on supported land, even after repayment of program costs
- One Acre Fund’s loan model achieves a 95% repayment rate, a strong recovery after pandemic challenges (up from 92% in 2021).
- The core program costs approximately $80 per farmer to deliver (for the bundle of seeds, fertilizer, insurance, training, and logistics). A high proportion of these field expenses are recovered through farmer repayments.
- One Acre Fund has achieved a $3.20 social return on investment (SROI) – meaning each $1 in donor funds generates over $3 in new farm profits and assets for supported farmers.
With respect to tree planting (the current focus of Focusing Philanthropy’s active campaigns), One Acre Fund’s agroforestry program has achieved the following impact since 2011:
- 250 million trees planted by over 5 million farmers as of 2024, with a goal of 1 billion trees by 2030.
- Over 4,000 decentralized tree nurseries operated by local entrepreneurs, producing tens of millions of seedlings annually by 2024
- Roughly $10 of long-term asset value (timber, fruit, etc.) is created for farm families for every $1 donated to One Acre Fund’s agroforestry program.
- 3-5 tree species are now offered to farmers in most markets at significant scale, each tailored to the unique ecological conditions and market opportunities in each of the countries served.
- Over 11 million metric tons of carbon have been sequestered by the trees planted to date (with over 2 million metric tons estimated to be permanently sequestered in biomass and soils).
Path to Credibility
- Recipient of a Skoll Foundation Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2010)
- Recipient of a Mulago Foundation grant
- Included in the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation venture philanthropy portfolio
- Awarded the Sustainable Finance Award by the Financial Times in 2011, the only organization other than a bank to receive this award
- 2020 Audacious Project awardee
- Included in Forbes magazine’s “Impact 30” list of top social entrepreneurial organizations in the world
- 2022 Co-Impact award winner
- The Focusing Philanthropy team has conducted 18 in-country due diligence field visits to One Acre Fund sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda, underscoring the organization’s transparency and our confidence in its model. These visits include farmer meetings and field inspections to verify results on the ground.
- Focusing Philanthropy and One Acre Fund launched four successful multi-year campaigns between 2012 and 2024. These campaigns have catalyzed tens of millions of dollars in funding. We continue to collaborate on multi-year “Bold Initiative” campaigns, such as the current tree-planting initiative, to increase scale and deepen impact. Each of these partnerships has significantly accelerated One Acre Fund’s growth and reach, helping millions of hard-working subsistence farm families gain food security and economic opportunity.