One Acre Fund
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 8,300 full-time staff across ten countries.
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 2019, OAF was privileged to serve more than 1 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 8,300 full-time staff across ten countries.
In 2019, OAF’s clients saw their incomes rise by $96 and were paying back loans at a 97% repayment rate.
One Acre Fund News
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One Acre Fund and SIRUM Win 2020 Audacious ProjectHoused at TED, The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative that is unlocking social impact on a grand scale. Every year we select and…Jun 2020 -
Andrew Youn: 3 Reasons We Can Win the Fight Against PovertyHalf of the world’s poorest people have something in common: they’re small farmers. In this eye-opening talk, activist Andrew Youn shows how his group, One…Jun 2016 -
One Acre Fund is Energizing the Green Revolution in Africa“In the fight against global poverty, there are very few hugely powerful leverage points,” says One Acre Fund founder, Andrew Youn. “The majority of the world’s poor…Jun 2015 -
One Acre Fund: "Social Good = Scale x Impact (Who Knew?)"“At One Acre Fund, we are working to de-isolate these two critical factors, and achieve both meaningful scale and net impact. We’ve grown more than…Jul 2014
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We continue working with GoK to keep farming open for business during the pandemic. We recently donated 30 water ta… https://t.co/xX7ot3ZrB4
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It is becoming increasingly evident that financial tech providers can help bridge the gaps between financial servic… https://t.co/oyXqBLhK8Q
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In the past, financial service providers have cited high operating costs, insufficient data, and perceived risk as… https://t.co/ZOGVijDmrh
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In the past, Emmanuel was harvesting up to 2 tons of maize from his farm in Rwanda. Unfortunately, recent floods ha… https://t.co/FhsMZonYLf
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Harvest season in southern Tanzania begun last month. Unfortunately, in addition to COVID-19, many farmers like 71-… https://t.co/cGaCC505x9
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As part of our ongoing COVID-19 response, we’ve donated 200 water tanks to various county governments in Western &… https://t.co/j0ARFz1Ybb
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In recent weeks, our Government Relations team has signed MOUs with the county governments of Busia, Trans Nzoia, N… https://t.co/Wokzx5M2Uu
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Our Executive Director shares an important operational update as we work to respond to the challenges of COVID-19 a… https://t.co/4rj9S71GPR
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“This disease is affecting everyone. I might not get sick, but I still feel the impact,” Fatuma Mgao, a farmer in T… https://t.co/I7SUFANMG5
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Our field teams across the countries we work continue to train farmers on COVID-19 preventive measures. Here, field… https://t.co/UYGbYGwRri
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Farmers transporting their produce to markets in Kayonzi District, Rwanda. COVID-19 movement restrictions in most o… https://t.co/UmvqUUrPCg
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“I was on the forefront distributing this soap, while showing farmers how to wash their hands to make sure that the… https://t.co/8ft833Odzj
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In case you’re wondering, no — we’re not about to drop an unboxing video — our field teams in Tanzania have begun u… https://t.co/iqloQNAdsX
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Josephine Nyakundi, one of our field officers in Nyamira, Kenya, hands over soap to a farmer. Aside from distributi… https://t.co/ImUOh0LZqO
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Smallholder farmers are determined to keep producing food during the Coronavirus crisis. That’s why we’re leveragin… https://t.co/sEotuSajx2
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“They're easy to understand because they're printed in my local language. I find myself referring to the flyers bec… https://t.co/YgaYOTjisj
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RT @OneAcreFund: "100% of my farmers have planted, and are now weeding. I’m sure, as we continue to fight COVID-19, my farmers will not be…