The One Acre Fund assists rural, sub-Saharan African farmers with financing, distribution, training and market facilitation. Through its work, it aims to empower rural farmers and lift them out of poverty.
The fund offers farmers flexible repayment schemes, providing high-quality seeds that are financed on credit. The repayment schemes allow farmers to adjust their payment depending on different crop cycles, overcoming an inherent risk of being unable to pay back within rigid loan repayment timeframes. Furthermore, farmers receive training throughout the season on sustainable agriculture techniques. Once the crop is grown, the One Acre Fund helps to facilitate market access for farmers by providing information on market fluctuations so that they can time crop sales to maximise profits.193
30 percent of One Acre Fund is financed through grant payments, with recent funding coming from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Global Innovation Fund (2017), and 70percent of One Acre Fund’s expenses are financed via the farmer loan repayments scheme. For every $1 invested by the fund, the farmer produces $3.16 in extra income (averaged over three years).194 As of 2019, the One Acre Fund worked with over 1 million farmer families across six countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and employed 8,280 full-time staff.195 Farmers, who enrol in the programme for three years, typically experience a $96 additional farm profit – an average 44 percent increase in income.196
193 ‘Farmers First’. n.d. One Acre Fund. https://oneacrefund.org/what-we-do/farmers-first/.
194 One Acre Fund, 2018. Impact. [online]. Available: 30th September 2019. Available: https://oneacrefund.org/2018-annual-report/
195 ‘Our Impact’. n.d. One Acre Fund. Accessed 20 September 2020. https://oneacrefund.org/impact/.
196 ‘One Million Farmers Served’. n.d. One Acre Fund. Accessed 20 September 2020. https://oneacrefund.org/2019-annual-report/.