One Million Farmers Served 2019 ANNUAL REPORT

A farmer group prepares land for planting, OPENING LETTER Greetings from One Acre Fund. I had originally written this letter to celebrate an important milestone: directly serving one million farmers each year. However, in the era of Covid-19, serving one million farmers takes on new urgency.

Agriculture is more essential than ever. We simply cannot afford to compound a health crisis with a food crisis. Most of the nations we serve in East Africa rely on food produced by smallholder farmers. One Acre Fund farmers alone grow enough food to feed 15 million people. Our mission has never been clearer: we must help farmers grow enough food to feed their families and feed their communities.

For rural farm families, Covid-19 is a dual crisis: a threat to both their health and livelihoods. Many rural areas lack basic hand-washing supplies that can slow the virus’ spread. To earn a living, farmers depend on free movement to access supplies and markets for their goods. The impact of the disease on a vulnerable population could be immense.

But serving one million farmers is also a reason for hope. We’ve rapidly adapted our operations to keep farmers safe and well-supported throughout this crisis. We accelerated input distribution to get crucial supplies in farmers’ hands before lockdowns. We’re rapidly digitizing our trainings and repayments. We’re distributing 2.5 million kilograms of soap. Our 6,500 field staff are actively promoting health best practices in rural areas.

Through this report, we want to take a moment to reflect on the success of 2019 and celebrate the accom- plishment of serving one million families that you’ve helped us to achieve. But please also know, we don’t see this as an end achievement of itself. Instead, it’s a foundation from which to build; while this crisis is daunting, it’s also challenging us to dream even bigger. We will flex and adapt in every way imaginable, in order to keep our countries’ food engines--farmers--in business. Our work matters, and at a time like this it matters more than ever.

Together in service,

ANDREW YOUN Executive Director, One Acre Fund

2019 Governing Board Members

Joel Ackerman Matt Forti Fred Ogana Andrew Youn Chief Financial Officer Managing Director Managing Partner Senior Partner/ DaVita Inc. One Acre Fund USA East Africa Market Executive Director/Co-founder Development Associates Ltd One Acre Fund Karl Hofmann James Mwangi President and CEO Executive Director Agnes Gathaiya Population Services International The Dalberg Group Chief Executive Officer William Asiko Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL) Executive Director Founder & Chief Executive Grow Africa Agrolay Ventures Laurent Thomas and his maize field,

2019 HIGHLIGHTS We experienced strong organization-wide growth in 2019. Amid the growth, we continued to focus on improving our clients’ wellbeing and resilience.

Served 1 Million Farmers 5 Key Resilience Measures 2.4 Million Farmer Interventions Our partnership programs, such as One million farm families benefited We targeted greater resilience among agroforestry and seed production, from our direct service model, all our clients through five key delivered a total of 2.4 million encompassing nearly 6 million approaches: improved soil fertility, interventions in addition to individuals. More than half of optimized seed choice, crop our direct service model. our clients were women. diversification, crop insurance, and tree planting.

Distributed 13 Tree Species Processed 800 Metric Integrated Use of Tablets We helped farmers access and plant Tons of Seed Across Two Countries more than 10 million tree seedlings In its first year of operation, With tablets, our 2,000+ field while continuously investing in our seed facility increased the staff across and key R&D efforts to test high-value, national supply of hybrid seed in strengthened accuracy and efficiency environmentally suitable tree varieties. Rwanda by 20%. in farmer enrollment, marketing, and data-tracking. SCALE AND SUSTAINABILITY

In 2019, One Acre Fund served one million smallholder farmers across six African countries. With the help of our market bundle – improved inputs on credit, training, delivery and post-harvest support – our program generated an average 44% increase in profits on supported land.

Yet amid these positive developments, the region grappled with another year of erratic rainfall and volatile crop prices. These factors led to lower impact for many of our farmer clients, and continue to be a challenge for smallholders across sub-Saharan Africa. It also makes it starkly evident that growth in numbers and increase in yields, on their own, are not enough.

As we mark the gains of the past year, we are emphasizing farmer resilience. Through a variety of methods, we aim to equip smallholders with tools and practices to fight hunger, build secure livelihoods, and safeguard their natural resources for the future. 1,004,700 73% 97% Total Farmers Served Financial Sustainability Farmer Repayment

KENYA RWANDA TANZANIA 408,000 383,000 104,500 56,000

Growth and Efficiency Above-target Growth 97% Re-enrollment Continued Expansion We have doubled in size since We served more than our goal We are seeing strong re-en- We have grown almost 2016 while paying particular of 300,000 farmers while rollment numbers in Burundi forty-fold from a pilot of attention to keeping cost strengthening impact and and repayment rates of close 1,500 farmers in 2012. per farmer low. cost-efficiency. to 100%. Product Diversification Two New Regions 20% of Farmers Reduced Hunger We started trialing 12 different We expanded our program We reached nearly a fifth Preliminary data show a 22% vegetable crops while supporting to Central and Rift Valley, key of the country’s farming reduction in the number of farmers with new tree varieties. agricultural areas of the country. population. One Acre Fund families reporting hunger.

MALAWI (pilot) 25,400 8,000 19,300

Tripled Since 2016 Increased Operational Efficiency 66% Year-on-year Growth Our Malawi operation has tripled Each field officer served 137 farmers Our Zambian clientele grew by in size in the last three years. which marked a 30%+ increase from two thirds between 2018 and 2019 the previous year and a crucial step as farmers expressed a need for 100,000+ Trees Planted towards increasing sustainability. reliable input accessand delivery. Farmers planted 100,000+ trees distributed by One Acre Fund. Diverse Product Bundles Diversified Offerings Trialed custom blends to ensure Nearly 40% of new clients opted farmers’ fields get the nutrients for newly introduced inputs for needed for strong harvests. soya and groundnuts. IMPACT

As an organization, we aim to help our clients achieve big harvests, healthy families, and rich soils. In 2019, One Acre Fund clients continued to grow more food for their families, which translated into reduced hunger and increased profit. While farmers in many One Acre Fund country operations faced highly erratic rains and lower than typical yields, their access to improved seeds, fertilizer and training meant that their harvests were more plentiful than non-participating farmers. This translated into a 44% improvement in profit on average across all areas we work.

Additional Farmer Profit Growth in Farmer Profit Social Return on Investment

BIG HARVESTS This year, One Acre Fund clients improved their harvests compared to non-participating farmers ranging from a 20% improvement in harvests in Tanzania to a doubling of harvests in Uganda. These harvest improvements vary according to weather patterns and soil conditions, but on average One Acre Fund farmers in all countries saw significant harvest improvements, even amid erratic rainfall patterns.

Harvest improvements translated into an average of $79 in increased agricultural profit, with an additional $16 in asset profit from add-on products like trees and solar lights. The average One Acre Fund farmer gained a total of $96 in additional profit, a 44% boost compared to non-participating farmers.1 This represents a 6% improvement upon last year’s profit impact. In 2019, crop selling pric- es rebounded compared to anomalously low prices in 2018, which helped farmers achieve stronger profits. However, poorly timed rains meant that overall harvests were still relatively low in many areas

1 We control for differences between One Acre Fund farmers and non-participants by matching them on characteristics like, education, gender, and wealth. we work. One Acre Fund farmers had a profitable year, but we want 3-Year Rolling Average to do better and aim higher.

One Acre Fund is committed to helping farmers remain profitable over the long term as they navigate the challenges of climate change and unpredictable crop price volatility. To do this we are adding multiple crops (including cereals, legumes, and vegetables) and new income sources (like poultry and trees) to our package in all countries. We are also offering index-based crop insurance in all countries, which helps ameliorate the financial pressures that clients face during difficult seasons.

HEALTHY FAMILIES One Acre Fund firmly believes that those who are in the business of growing food should never go hungry. A reduction in hunger and improvement in nutrition are key prongs of our impact strategy, and One Acre Fund farmers are 25% less likely to report going to sleep hungry due to lack of food in all of our countries of operation, which have a hunger season.2

However, reducing hunger is not enough. Many One Acre Fund farm families do not get adequate nutrition, which stymies growth and development and makes children more susceptible to illness. Therefore we have rolled out nutrition programs in each county of operation in which we use marketing and training to encour- age farmers to grow and eat nutritious crops. In Kenya, 39% of farmers purchased seed to grow leafy green vegetables, and in Rwanda we have seen a modest but statistically significant improvement in overall dietary diversity.

RICH SOILS In addition to big harvests and healthy families, we’re also investing in the long-term sustainability of our clients’ farms. This means ensuring that the foundation of their prosperity - the soil - remains fertile and healthy for generations to come. To accomplish this we are focused on increasing crop diversity, tailoring planting recommendations to each local context, promoting compost use, and encouraging the addition of acidity-reducing lime to soils. We’ve also expanded our agroforestry programs, which help sequester carbon in the soil, prevent erosion, and increase nutrient levels in the soil. In 2019 we supported more than 900,000 smallholder farmers to plant more than 10 million trees.

2 Hunger impact compares newly enrolled farmers with those who have already experienced a season with One Acre Fund. We only include statistically significant results (p<.05) and average impact over multiple years of data collection. Additional Farmer Profit

“Annual” Impact “Asset” Impact

$118 $102 $96 $58

$34 $39 $19 $15

Total Kenya Rwanda Burundi Tanzania Uganda Malawi Zambia

Growth in Farmer Profit

81%

44% 43% 27% 27% 13% 9% 6%

Total Kenya Rwanda Burundi Tanzania Uganda Malawi Zambia

Farmers Reporting Hunger

Newly Enrolled Farmer Veteran Farmer

37% 27% 25% 20% 18% 11% 14% 8% No Significant Change No Significant Change

Kenya Rwanda Burundi Tanzania* Uganda* Malawi Zambia*

* Percentage of farmers who reported hunger from not having enough food. Poorly timed rains across our network depressed harvests in 2019; leading to below average hunger impacts for One Acre Fund in most countries. Members of the Kanyao group with their field officer Cyrus Onundu, Kenya

MEET THE MILLIONTH FARMER GROUP As the setting sun glints off his neighbor’s tin rooftop behind him, 40-year-old farmer James Geka- nana looks over his homestead—a three-room house and a 3/4 acre farm in Nyang’eni, Kenya. He is pensive but hopeful. “I want this home to be different,” James says. “I want it to change completely. I want to have healthier cows, a better house, my children to study better—to live so that they won’t look back and say that they lacked a lamp to read at night.”

Just down the road, another farmer, 35-year-old Susan Kavesa, shares similar dreams. “There are things we need to achieve in life,” she says. “Some of us want to get iron sheets to build houses, some of us want to buy cows. We want to do more things.”

Both are new members of the Kanyao Group, one of a handful of farmer groups whose enrollment pushed One Acre Fund over the million farmer threshold. The group has 10 members, some new clients and some who have farmed with One Acre Fund for years, improving their farms and their standard of living year by year.

Josca Nyang’au, a member who has been farming with One Acre Fund since 2011, now owns livestock, farms bananas, owns trees and a flourishing field of maize and peanuts. In the two-story chicken coop nestled in the tall grass of her yard, she keeps 20 chickens—something that offers her a level of financial security she said she had never known before. “Before I did not have chickens,” Josca says. “When I get unexpectedly sick, I can sell a chicken and go to the hospital. I am no longer stressed, thanks to One Acre Fund.”

The Kanyao Group is one of roughly 115,000 farmer groups who have joined One Acre Fund this season with dreams of living life a different way. Along with one million farmers across six countries, they see a path of incremental investments over time that will lead to a generational shift for their children. “One million people, we have truly progressed because of One Acre Fund and the service they offer to farmers,” Susan says. “As long as it’s here, we shall flourish and our country will develop.” Mwaiwathu group practices planting techniques with their field officer, Malawi

SMART SCALING

In 2005, One Acre Fund founder and Executive Director Andrew Youn met a farmer named Christine in western Kenya. Christine, a mother of four, had recently lost a child to hunger. Despite hours of manual labor each day, Christine’s farm—like many in her village—did not yield enough food to feed her family year-round. But Andrew also met a farmer named Betty, who was harvesting four times as much food, and had a surplus to sell for school fees, health, and other expenditures. Betty was doing just three things differently: planting higher quality seed; using a tiny amount of fertilizer; and equally spacing her seeds.

One Acre Fund launched the next year, delivering what has now become our “core bundle” of offerings to support 38 smallholder farmers to become more like Betty. Fourteen years later, we’re serving one million farmers annually. We have learned many lessons on smart scaling along the way.

Lesson 1: Test and Fail at Small Scale In 2008, we believed we had a brilliant new product in Kenya: passion fruit. On paper, it was a high-de- mand crop with export potential. But in the field, the pitfalls of introducing an unfamiliar crop became quickly apparent: adoption levels were low, and we struggled to get the fruit to market in time at exportable quality. It was a complete bust.

This experience taught us a vital lesson—test and fail at a small scale. Now, we test new product offerings for farmers through a phased process, starting small before rolling it out to all our clients. For example, we piloted tree planting in 2011 with just a handful of farmers the first year, using their feedback to develop a simple planting approach (tree kits). Nine years later, One Acre Fund clients have planted over 40 million trees. Lesson 2: Adopt a Numerator and Denominator Mindset When we first set our 2020 goal to serve one million farmers, we reverse engineered that goal into drivers: how many new countries we’d need to enter;the proportion of each country’s territory we’d need to serve; and a target household penetration in those territories. We designed every aspect of our model to support rapid scale, from codifying standard operating procedures to modeling the criteria that predict success in new territories.

In more recent years, we realized that our ‘numerator thinking’ (our reach) was incomplete. We need- ed to confront ‘the denominator’—the market of 50 million African farm families who could benefit from our model—to make a meaningful dent in the problem. This ‘denominator mindset’ drove us to explore new partnership opportunities with governments and the private sector, which served more than 1 million additional farm families in 2019.

Lesson 3: Stay Client-centric No decision has been more consequential to our scale than situating our headquarters in the rural locations where our farmers live, enabling our entire team to interact with farmers on a regular basis. To further instill this value of client-centricity, we encourage our staff to regularly Go to Gemba.

Gemba is a Japanese term, loosely meaning “the place where the work is done.” All of our teams spend time in the field, interacting with farmers and gathering constant data on our service delivery. Over the years, we have found that there is no substitute for learning through observation, and many of those observations have been key to reaching our current scale by driving us to offer services our customers truly value. CONCLUSION

Thank you for continuing to support our work at One Acre Fund, and more importantly, Sub-Saharan Africa’s farmers. It’s important to emphasize that our success is not our own. It is that of every farmer who takes a leap of faith with us, working hard through every planting season to improve their harvests and build a more prosperous future for their families.

Looking ahead, we have an ambitious new goal to achieve: 10 million farmers by 2030. And once again, we do not have a perfect roadmap on how to get there. We know the journey will be challenging, but we take inspiration from farmers like the Kanyao Group. Farmers like James, Susan, and Josca sit at the nexus of our planet’s greatest challenges—feeding a growing population, creating sustainable livelihoods, and living within our environmental means. Farmers will determine our shared future, so as always, we appreciate your help in putting Farmers First. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2018 HIGHLIGHTS Special Thanks Thank you to the following people who have graciously given their time to One Acre Fund.

GOVERNING BOARD Patience Mutesi Carol Kim I Do Foundation Joel Ackerman George Ngarambe Mark Rossi Impact Assets William Asiko Rebecca Onie Simi Sandhu Kiva Karl Hofmann Angelline Rudakubana Johanna Simon Melih and Zeynep Keyman Matt Forti Jenny Scharrer Bill Quinn Becky and Lester Knight James Mwangi Juliana Kantengwa David Tomback (Chairman) Harry and Julie Kraemer Fred Ogana Amb. George William Carol and Larry Levy Family Agnes Gathaiya Kayonga PEOPLE ADVISORY Libra Foundation Ada Osakwe Dr. Charles Murekezi COMMITTEE Derek and Diana Lidow Andrew Youn Jean Claude Musabyimana Kristin Brennan Life You Can Save Phillip Nzaire Alison Lawrence MercyCorps NETHERLANDS BOARD Evariste Rugigana Monica Marcel Bill Quinn Robert Amelung MP Gabriel Semasaka Barry Marshall Joel Segre Femke Rotteveel Robert Ssali Danit Schleman President Morty Schapiro Jan Willem Baud Yves Bernard Ningabire Randall Stieghorst and the Northwestern Matthew Forti Dr. Laetitia Nyinawamwiza Vaishnavi Tekumalla Community Aaltje de Roos Sidley Austin LLP Jasper Snoek CHICAGO GALA Skoll Foundation PLANNING SPECIAL Sunu Capital UK BOARD COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Chuck Slaughter Sonny Bardhan Susan Diamond A to Z Foundation Ryah Whalen Suveer Kothari Dev Patel Dean Francesca Cornelli and Steve and Sue Wilson Pooja Mall James Wesner (Gala the Kellogg Community Jeanne Wussler Steve Wiggins Chairman) Candide Group Joseph, Paul and Teresa Youn Gideon Rabinowitz Paul Wormley Greg Casagrande Adrian Dominican Sisters The Casten Family Align Impact ADVISORY BOARD CHICAGO GALA Ceniarth Impact Bridge Chris Addy HOST COMMITTEE Citibank King Philanthropies David I. Cohen Carol Anderson Chris and Christina Combe Missionary Sisters of the Martin Fisher Bill Bennett Echoing Green Sacred Heart Nicole Gardner The Combe Family The ELMA Growth John Murphy Tony Kalm Roxanne Hori Foundation The Religious Communities Richard Passov Barry Merkin Energising Development Impact Fund, Inc James Wesner Ben Olds Willy Foote Tayo Rockson Serge Kamuhinda Serena Kohli Lal Sarah, Emily and Ben Forti Seton Enablement Fund Faustin Mbundu Kananura Global Health Corps U.S International Amb. Gideon Kayinamura NEW YORK PLANNING Margaux Hall Development Finance Dr. Athanase Mukuralinda COMMITTEE Mahri Holt Corporation (DFC) James Munanura Keech Combe Shetty Netri Fundación Privada University of the South ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS2018 HIGHLIGHTS Key Supporters

FELLOW FARMERS The Berkshire Foundation ($500,000 AND UP) PARTNERS Branson Family Foundation Anonymous (7) ($100,000–$499,000) Casten Family Foundation BlackRock, Inc. (via BlackRock Anonymous (4) Keech Combe Shetty and Akshay Charitable Trust, a donor-advised Joel Ackerman Shetty fund) Achmea Foundation Deloitte Cartier Philanthropy AGRA Digital Green Children’s Investment Fund Archer Daniels Midland Company Fischer Family Fund Foundation / ADM Cares Greg and Carol Harding-Brown The Combe Family Bayer Hopper-Dean Foundation John Deere Foundation Bohemian Foundation John Wiley & Sons, Inc. DGIS (Netherlands Development Aid) Caterpillar Foundation Jeronimo Martins Ezrah Charitable Trust CF Industries Steven and Maureen Meyer Focusing Philanthropy Mr. and Mrs. Ram Chaudhari Morris Family Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation COmON Foundation The Nature Conservancy Global Innovation Fund Enhancing Livelihoods Fund Open Society Foundation Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Andrew Park Estate of Chris Herron Jackson Kemper Foundation Amit and Vicky Patel IKEA Foundation Jasmine Charitable Trust Ribbink Foundation Steve Jurvetson Marco Kheirallah and Susanna Rock Paper Scissors Foundation Karla Jurvetson Gabriella Ryan Cooper Family Foundation Vinod and Neeru Khosla Manzanar Project Foundation Satter Foundation Knight Family Foundation Lisa and Yaron Minsky Primus Stichting AKBHHH Harry and Julie Kraemer Montpelier Foundation The Wasily Family Foundation KfW on behalf of BMZ Mulago Foundation The Zall Family Fund Larry Ellison Foundation Open Value Foundation LDS Charities Sall Family Foundation LEADERSHIP CIRCLE The Levy Family Small Foundation ($10,000–$24,999) Kristov Paulus Stichting af Jochnick Foundation Anonymous (2) Silicon Valley Community Stichting Dioraphte Alpha Inversiones Foundation David Weekley Family Foundation AT&T Skoll Foundation Whole Planet Foundation Mike and Carol Anderson Syngenta Foundation for The Andersons Inc. Charitable Sustainable Agriculture HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Foundation USAID ($25,000–$99,999) Aon The Valhalla Charitable Foundation Anonymous (1) The Appletree Fund Virgin Unite Ackerman Foundation, Inc. Atlantic Sapphire USA, LLC Stephen and Susan Wilson Tom and Analisa Barrett St. Augustine’s Church Bergerson Family Foundation William Bennett

*BlackRock’s support is being made via grants recommended to and paid by the BlackRock Charitable Trust, a donor-advised fund. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Key Supporters

Rick and Diane Betts Alex and Polly Ryerson Daniel Johnson William Blair Evan Schwartz James Klosty BluSky Restoration Contractors Barbara Scott Kutchins Robbins & Diamond, Ltd. Sean and Sandra Bogda Stephen and Rebecca Waddell Mr J.K van Oord Bombardier Recreational Products James and Cheryl Wormley The Miles and G. Elizabeth Lasater Gregory Bustamante The Sachs Charitable Foundation Fund Doug and Leigh Conant US Bank Global Fund Services Thomas Latham Crown Bioscience Inc. David Windmueller The Life You Can Save Dave and Jodi Dent Jane Yang Lord Abbett & Co. LLC Susan Diamond Jason Maga and Olivia Kohler-Maga Express Scripts MAJOR SUPPORTERS Kitty Martin Roxanne Hori and Robert Felsenthal ($5,000–$9,999) Pamela Martinson Florida Council of Independent Anonymous (2) Mason Maye Schools Chris and Danika Addy Raj and Michelle Midha Matt and Sarah Forti ABS Investment Management Jason Mitrakos Bon and Holly French Erik Arvidsson Laura More Matthew Garman and Shanti Garman Karen Beltz David and Joanne Mullen Dmitry and Ida Gorenburg Bigelow Tea OppenheimerFunds Legacy Account Hadley Capital John W. Bloom Christopher Painter Harvey Family Foundation Mike Brower Eric Paley Health Care Service Corporation Hal and Kimberly Burch Parametric Portfolio Associates Gordon Hilbun Steve and Tracy Cahillane Dev and Suhani Patel Joseph Barnett Paul Charitable Cheryl L. Choy Tim Patru Organization David Cole Physicians Realty Trust Kaiser Permanente Courtney Combe Massimiliano Poletto and and Kara Kaufman Family Foundation Rob DeMars O’Keefe King’s Grant Presbyterian Church Todd Dennett ProNatura Charitable Fund Kathy Lewis Jeff Dow Clayton Rockefeller and Manya JJ and Ephrat Livne Ofer Entrust Capital Management LP Rubinstein Jan Luehmann Ryan Fiftal Matthew Runkle Longfield Family Charitable First Dollar Foundation Robin and Jill Selati Foundation Kimberly and Leo Flynn Michael Shapiro Marquette Associates Arthur Frigo Spark Directed Fund McKinsey and Co., Inc. Goldman Sachs Ryan Stoner McCall Matthew Gail Graham Sinead M. Strain Netri Fundación Privada Grosvenor Capital Management, L.P. Heather and Paul Tammelleo Ryan O’Connell Mark Heising and Elizabeth Simons David Tomback Hugh O’Connor Hoban Family Charitable Foundation Bruce and Alisa Weber Ben and Kim Olds Andrew and Caroline Huddart James Wesner and Steve Alessandro RDO Equipment Co. The Hultquist Foundation John Wolak Paul and Rosemary Wormley