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, Ethiopia, and Tanzania and are employing 6,900 full-time staff across six 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 2018, OAF served 800,000 farm families in Sub-Saharan Africa. By the end of 2019, OAF hopes to work with about 925,000 families.
Kenya was OAF’s first country of operations—they’ve now expanded to Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi are employing 7,300 full-time staff across the six countries.
In 2018, OAF’s farmers saw their incomes rise by $90+ and were paying back loans at a 97% repayment rate. At this rate of growth, OAF will soon be Africa’s largest network of smallholder farmers.
One Acre Fund News
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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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"...to organise farmers, officials need to work with bodies that are based in, or have established trust with, farm… https://t.co/sitkE0sUZO
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As part of a new program trial, we're setting up small shops in towns to make quality, cost-effective farm input ac… https://t.co/McYWafRrrn
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"I have planted this variety for two years now and I am very happy with the yields. You see how the cobs seem to be… https://t.co/PRNSyfBH3h
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Challenges like climate change and drought sometimes eat into farmers' profits, affecting their ability to put food… https://t.co/ABIS4KpP2L
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When we think technology, we subconsciously have sprawling urban settlements in mind. However, there are several di… https://t.co/EtjJCKJKub
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A team that plays together, stays together! Here, the One Acre Tanzania team puts their best foot forward during a… https://t.co/69nzfEQSA4
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Meet Esta Kanyombwe, a 30-year old farmer from Mbeya, Tanzania. She doubled her maize harvest within a couple of s… https://t.co/z5IB44JqBL
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RT @SkollFoundation: “People are at the heart of everything we do. Hiring, retaining, and developing staff is our most important calling as…
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If you had the chance to start over, would you still pick the same career? Strive Masiyiwa, one of Africa's larger-… https://t.co/12AEMSoo7e
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"Our old systems relied on manual data entry. Now, with internet access even in remote areas, we can give our field… https://t.co/MFC5MxPohf
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Meet Eliana Mgode, a 65-year old farmer from Mbeya, Tanzania. Signing up with One Acre Fund in 2016, she has been u… https://t.co/Vv0brjj5C0
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RT @SkollFoundation: Andrew Youn envisions a world where opportunity is distributed evenly. His organization, @OneAcreFund, is working to m…
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RT @BeaconPressBks: In today’s #globalaid, it’s not enough to have good intentions. @raj_devex profiles startups & organizations like @Hell…
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“With our larger harvests, we now have enough food so we can change our lives and home!” – Vedasto Nywage and Ana C… https://t.co/dX039V41Gt
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Our Tech team builds and innovates the systems that One Acre Fund runs on—and they’re hiring! Find out what it’s li… https://t.co/1bbthlcr3V
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We're excited to share our 2018 annual report, which we're publishing digitally for the first time. Check it out ➡️ https://t.co/gGnBwAJPSJ
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RT @CSIS_USLD: Technology will change the way the U.S. and development partners operate, including creating feedback loops between donors,…
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Our Tech team builds and innovates the systems that One Acre Fund runs on—and they’re hiring! Find out what it’s li… https://t.co/9jExk1eUFr
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RT @SkollFoundation: "Every sack in this gigantic warehouse piled 40-50 feet high means opportunity for somebody." Listen to Andrew Youn of…
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RT @mix_market: "Investors are missing out on one of the greatest impact opportunities in financial inclusion today." https://t.co/arEUw7yw…