Food Security Rwanda Project #59148

Help 500 Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa

by One Acre Fund

Help 500 Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa

Project Report | Jul 14, 2025
Q2 2025 Progress Report

By One Acre Fund | One Acre Fund

One Acre Fund at 19 Years

Scale: This year, we expect to serve over 2 million farmers (with approximately 3.3 million children) through our full service program. We are maintaining our momentum in mature markets while expanding rapidly in three “growth” markets: Burundi, Malawi, and Nigeria. We also expect to serve an additional 3.6 million farmers through our systems change (partnerships) platform.

Impact: Our full service program increases farm profits and assets by ~40% per year, enhancing food security and enabling new productive investments in child education, health, and other priority areas for farmers. Early harvest results suggest farmers in our largest markets will achieve higher prices for their output, but lower yields given unfavorable weather.
Cost-effectiveness: Social return on investment (SROI) measures the multiple of farm profits and assets generated per $1 of donor investment in our program. This year we are trending towards an "all-in" (inclusive of all organizational expenses) SROI of ~$4.5:$1; a strong cost-effectiveness for livelihoods interventions that target the extreme poor. This SROI is also ~40% higher than 2023 levels, driven by tech efficiency gains and increased adoption of higher-value tree and cash crops.

Across Our Program & Beyond

Implementing soil health campaigns: Healthy soil practices are key to increasing plant health and farm-level resilience. We are implementing multi-year soil health campaigns in many country programs. In Burundi, we're training farmers on erosion control practices (e.g., terracing and grass strips) and lime application (to combat soil acidity). In Malawi, we’re prioritizing soil health by training farmers on practices such as composting, instead of burning crop residues. In Rwanda, we’re expanding pH testing. We’re also promoting integrated practices like compost making, lime application, and mulching.

Growth Story: Nigeria: The Nigeria program aims to deliver One Acre Fund’s highest year-over-year growth (of 56%) in our full service program. This year we will add 30,000+ new clients across our existing states of Niger, Kwara, and Nasarawa State, in part by increasing digital repayment adoption, which enables field staff to spend more time training farmers and reaching new clients. We are also exploring biometric data capture for client enrollment and expanding beyond maize to a broader crop portfolio.

Public Sector Funding Update: The public funding landscape continues to shift, with significant foreign aid reductions in the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. government’s foreign-aid pullback has led to the cancellation or pause of ~$6.5M in multi-year grants/contracts to One Acre Fund; as a result, we are actively working to secure private funding to sustain the food security and resilience work impacted by these cuts. Our Global Policy team is also pursuing all opportunities to demonstrate the high value for money that comes with government investment in African smallholder farmers.

Mar 20, 2025
Q1 2025 Progress Report

By One Acre Fund | One Acre Fund

The 2024 season was a year of resilience and progress across our country programs: we served over 5 million smallholder families and delivered more than $420 million in total impact to our clients! As we transition into the 2025 season, we are proud to share our final quarterly update for 2024, including preliminary impact and financial estimates for the year. Here are a few highlights:

Social Return on Investment (SROI): We measure the new profits generated for farmers for every $1 of donor investment. Although preliminary 2024 estimates indicate below-target core program impact, we achieved an SROI of 5.4 (our highest-ever) in our core program and 10.5 in our systems-change program. This strong efficiency reflects initiatives like increasing farmer-to-Field Officer ratios (e.g., testing higher ratios in Nigeria), and digital efficiency gains from our new tech systems.
Scale: We served 2.12 million farm families through our core program in 2024, exceeding our target and achieving a strong ~36% growth from 2023. Additionally, we reached 2.95 million farmers through our systems-change work. While this represents a year-over-year decline due to ongoing conflict in Ethiopia and delays in Rwanda’s seed processing program, we maintained momentum in scaling systems-change initiatives with high farmer revenue potential—including agroforestry, market access, and input production. We anticipate a return to stable growth across these programs in 2025.
US Government Funding Pause: On January 27th, a 90-day pause on foreign aid disbursements was issued by the US government, requiring us to halt important food security, agroforestry, and insurance programs. While One Acre Fund's diversified revenue base has ensured this pause does not present a significant risk, prolonged delays or cancellations of these grants could require replacement funding or force the cancellation of these programs. We look forward to providing updates as the situation evolves.

Attachments:

2024_Q4_One_Acre_Fund_Performance_Report.pdf (PDF)

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Nov 26, 2024
2024 Q2 Report

By One Acre Fund | One Acre Fund

Despite the increasing extreme weather and ongoing economic challenges facing farmers this year in certain markets, we remain largely on track to achieve our 2024 performance goals. Some highlights within:

Stable Core Program Growth: We project serving 1.68 million farmers in our core (direct service) program by year-end, representing an ~8% increase from last year. Although we will see only modest growth in Kenya due to the ongoing government farm input subsidy program, we project strong growth in the three poorest markets we reach: Burundi (25% year over year), Malawi (24%), and Rwanda (8%).
Adapting to Extreme Weather: This year, Malawi's severe drought led to our largest crop insurance claim ever, partially compensating farmers for their losses. In response to the increasing prevalence of such extreme events, One Acre Fund is intensifying our climate resilience programming, including providing strong safety nets through improved insurance. For instance, we are partnering with IFC and Milliman on a three-year study to determine the payout levels families need in tough years to avoid costly coping mechanisms, providing crucial data for the agricultural insurance sector.
Commercialization: In our work to increase adoption of higher-profit cash crops, we are pioneering new approaches to improving smallholder-facing value chains and helping agricultural businesses succeed. Our Smallholder Resilience Ventures (SRV) unit, launched in 2022, is strategically investing in SMEs that source climate-resilient, high-value crops from smallholders. This year SRV is advancing Rwanda's avocado, chili, and coffee value chains, while in Kenya, we are exploring market validation for textured vegetable protein and developing climate-friendly irrigation solutions. Additionally, our Burundi program now supports 50 cooperatives in mushroom cultivation, generating on average $350 in new income per cooperative.

Attachments:

2024_Q2_One_Acre_Fund_Performance_Report.pdf (PDF)

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