Model & Strategy

One Acre Fund serves one-acre subsistence farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa – one of the largest groups of “forgotten poor” in the world. Studies have shown that these farmers could at least quadruple their own farm yields with appropriate inputs and education. By providing a complete, functioning market system, One Acre Fund makes it possible for even the poorest and most rural farmer to generate more income and permanently solve their hunger problem.

With a focus on delivering services to female heads of household, One Acre Fund reaches the most severely hunger-affected with a comprehensive investment package of high-quality seed and fertilizer, education courses, and access to output markets. Agro-inputs, training, a collective sales model to enable price leverage for small scale producers, and crop insurance provide a whole solution to poverty that leads to self-driven, permanent growth out of hunger.

Kenya was OAF’s first country of operations — they’ve now expanded to Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia, and are employing 8,700 full-time staff across nine countries.

At a Glance
Founded: 2006
Co-Founder, Senior Partner & Executive Director: Andrew Youn
Food & Agriculture
Location of work: International, Africa
One Acre Fund
Kakamega, Kenya
Farmers first
Andrew Youn of One Acre Fund
Meet Andrew Youn

Andrew Youn is the founder of One Acre Fund.  Andrew’s passion for this work stems from his lifelong involvement in empowering disadvantaged communities to stand on their own. Andrew graduated from Yale University with honors, worked as a management consultant to Fortune 500 companies with Mercer Consulting and received his M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

IMPACT

In 2021, One Acre Fund served 1.4 million farm families in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Kenya was OAF’s first country of operations—they’ve now expanded to Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia, and are employing 8,700 full-time staff across nine countries.

In 2021, One Acre Fund’s farmers saw their incomes rise by $104 and were paying back loans at a 92% repayment rate.