One Acre Fund

The One Acre Fund (www.oneacrefund.org) supports local farmers in Africa by providing the essential materials and education to farm successfully in Africa. They subsequently assist with finding a market for the farmers’ crops. In a community in which families are harmed by perpetual hunger, the One Acre Fund empowers the chronically hungry to pull themselves out of poverty. While the One Acre Fund is a non-profit organization, it uses a business model to invest in the families it supports. It sets itself apart from microfinance institutions because it does not hold the families in debt. Instead, it takes a cut of the profits from each harvest and reinvests into other harvests. If a harvest fails, the family is not left in debt; if the harvest succeeds, farmers and the One Acre Fund both benefit. This will create a completely sustainable model in the long term.

Sounds great on paper, right? So how is the One Acre Fund able to succeed with a foreign business model in the local community politics of Africa? According to Youn, “We have actually had a very easy time with local political leaders. This is primarily because we have a contact in the area who grew up in the area and basically went to high school with half the political leadership in the area. We always look for links like this, and will continue to try to find those “key connectors,” and so far have not had any issues.” That said, this promises to be a considerable challenge as the One Acre Fund expands to other communities, and must deal with the political struggles of corruption that plague Kenya as a whole, especially at the local level.