bra ele tin Annual Report c g 1 0 y e a r s o e f 2016c i s v e r ALICE NIMBONA Burundi I feel so good. When my children are hungry, I can take care of them because now I harvest very well compared to before. FRONT COVER: Raphael Mwande and Fatima Bingesiti, Malawi TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 Opening Letter 5 Program Model PURPOSE 6 10 Years in Review We serve smallholder farmers. In everything we do, we place the farmer first. We measure success in our 8 By the Numbers ability to make more farmers more prosperous. We envision a future in which every farm family has the 9 Direct Service Model knowledge and means to achieve big harvests, support healthy families, and cultivate rich soils. 10 Scale 12 Impact 14 Sustainability 15 Meet the Team 16 From the Field 18 Management Discussion 21 Innovations 24 Feature Farmer Story 29 Acknowledgments & BURUNDI Leadership Humble Service Hard Work Continual Growth Dreaming Big Family of Leaders Integrity We meet farmers in their fields, We work hard every day. We improve every season. We envision serving We bring together the best We do what we say, VALUES and we get our shoes muddy. We execute with world-class We work with determination millions of farm families. leaders and build long-term and our words match Farmers are our customers, and professionalism and business to meet our goals, and then We build for scale with careers. We care for team our values. we serve them with humility. excellence. Farmers deserve stretch ourselves by raising every idea and solution. members like family. nothing less. the bar even higher. OneAcreFund.org 3 OPENING LETTER DIRECT SERVICE MODEL By listening to our boss—the smallholder farmer—we have Greetingsfrom One Acre Fund developed a complete solution that enables her to significantly I’m excited to share with you our 2016 Annual Report, which increase farm income and grow her details our progress over the past year and outlines our vision for own way out of hunger and poverty. the future. 2016 was a special year for us, and a time of reflection, We offer each farmer we serve a because it marked our 10-year anniversary. complete service bundle, delivered Looking back, it’s hard to believe how far we’ve come in our first ten years of service. Today, to the rural village where she lives. One Acre Fund still has the same mission, drive, and passion for serving smallholder farmers as it did back then, but in many other ways the organization has completely transformed. Ten years ago, we started out with only 38 farmers, and our shoestring staff operated out of RAEL MORAGA, KENYA a single room rented from the office of a small local Catholic charity in Bungoma, Kenya. 2016 Governing In those early days, I thought I was dreaming big. I aimed to serve 25,000 farm families Board Members in Kenya by 2012. Little did I know, we would have the customer demand, operational skills, and capital to reach five times that many by then. Now, we’re serving more than 445,000 Joel Ackerman farmers in six countries, and we’ve increased our staff to include more than 5,000 people, all Chief Financial Officer of whom are steadfast in their commitment to putting Farmers First. DaVita Inc. FERTILIZER The lesson I learned—and am still learning—is that we must continually challenge our- Matt Forti SEED selves to dream even bigger. In 2006, I thought of One Acre Fund solely as an agricultural Managing Director organization. I didn’t account for all the other things farmers needed to improve their lives. One Acre Fund USA That’s why, over the years, we’ve expanded our offerings from staple food crops into other FINANCING DISTRIBUTION TRAINING MARKET FACILITATION Karl Hofmann products like tree seeds and solar lamps. And we’ve started government partnerships work for seed and fertilizer of farm inputs on agricultural techniques to maximize harvest profits President & CEO that we hope will allow us to serve many, many more farming families in the future. Population Services Today, One Acre Fund’s work is more important than ever. Serving 1 million farmers International by 2020 is an ambitious target, but we must dream even bigger than that. Our next decade will focus on how we can contribute to the transformation of the agricultural sector at James Mwangi the national level in the countries where we work; how we can build sub-Saharan Africa’s Executive Director The Dalberg Group All of these services must largest network of climate-resilient smallholder farmers; and how we can influence more policymakers to put smallholder farmers at the center of their work. Fred Ogana be provided together. Managing Partner Farmers First, East Africa Market Development Associates Ltd Without financing, seed and fer- Rebecca Onie Co-founder and CEO tilizer are unaffordable. Without Health Leads training and market facilitation, ANDREW YOUN Executive Director, One Acre Fund Andrew Youn farmers do not maximize yields or Senior Partner/ farm profits. And without delivery, Executive Director/ these services may as well be on Co-founder One Acre Fund the moon. PATRICK SIMIYU, KENYA 4 2016 Annual Report OneAcreFund.org 5 A Look Back at 10 Years HIGLTS Product & Progam tic Operation l Recognit While w’re knly awre th is alw y ro m f ipvemnt, we Inovati s Mileston & Awards also beiv n th alue of c brating ou chevmnts. None f thes uc wo ld have bn pos ile wthu or eam’s hard work and elts dicaon t puig Farmes i t. 20 20 One Acr Fud lanches Direct sv¾ model Crop20 insuace Àrovid with 38 ponerig fam reachs oug¿ly 50 percnt as prt of Kenya l Country Laches familes n Kya finacil sut nabiy pack ge for th fis ime 20 | KENYA 21 | TANZANIA Pro f ¡ cnept srv Test of an pr tig model 38 farmes in t fir yea with loªer c nt dsiy 20 21 21 Sco p designÆ for Äames Earned vu from Solar mp ti ls exÃand our to micrdse ftilzr direct sv¾ model tps of¡erings Ä mpactful Àrod s directly o a¾h pntig $1 mil on per ya 20 | RWANDA 21 | MALAWI hole, prevntig oÇruse Operations bg wth Our fist opeai n a 30-farme pilot in souther Afica BURUNDI UGANDA 21 21 | 21 | To21 mitgae ±p c of a m ize vrus, The Last Hungr Seaso, a bo k Mobile21 rpaymnt ils Expansio t e f h Operations luch Kenya pivots f¡er a nw cop tracking oe yar in th lves of begin Kya hungriest co n with 3,680 farmes pack ge, includg sor´h m, mil et, four One Ac Fud farm ¡ ±iles, the plan and swet poas is publ hed Farmes Svd 21 21 21 Governmt paershiÀ Named on f Tp 10 Ends chroi¾ Áunge for The21 Nw York Times’ 50,00 work t each mor f±es Most In vaie 1 mil on ch dre p ya David Bornste wi 4º5,630 througÁ nai l extnso Companies Afrca an rticle faung progams beÂin by Fast Compny our peating modl 40,00 305,40° 30,00 203,60° 21 21 21 135,0°0 10th year of ptins Co-founder Aw Youn gives Mets milone f srvig in servc of Äamers TED Éalk th re c¿s ov more than 40°,0°0 20,00 130,40° 1 mil on pe à clients gobaly 78,1¼1 31,840 10,00 12,0°0 125 60° 4,10° YEAR 20 20 20 20 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 NIELSEN SHAW BY: ILLUSTRATION OneAcreFund.org 7 DIRECT SERVICE BY THE NUMBERS MODEL Farm Families Served Farmer Repayment Rate Using our direct service model, Organization One Acre Fund has provided 445,630 Average: 98% farmers with access to seed and fertilizer on credit for 10 years. While we continue 305,400 to innovate around additional ways to 203,600 Kenya Rwanda Burundi support smallholder farmers, our direct 130,400 98% 95% 100% service model is at the heart of what we do. By providing asset-based financing, delivery, agricultural training, and market 2013 2014 2015 2016 facilitation, we enable smallholders to grow their way out of hunger and build lasting pathways to prosperity. $ Gain in Farmer Impact Tanzania Malawi Uganda 99% 100% 92% $135 $137 $116 $102 1 Field Sustainability1 2013 2014 2015 2016 Full Time Staff 73% 5,400 4,300 2016 2,343 1,900 73% 74% 79% 2013 2014 2015 2016 2013 2014 2015 1 Both impact and financial sustainability dipped due to drought conditions in many operating areas, especially Kenya, and inclusion of two new countries (Uganda and Malawi) in results. See later sections for more detail. BEATRICE NASIMIYU, KENYA OneAcreFund.org 9 Farm Families Served in 2016 SCALE DIRECT SERVICE MODEL 445,630 KENYA RWANDA 198,050 164,500 reach out to people they know. Word of mouth works. If we’re deeply embedded in communities, our clients trust us—and they recommend us to their neighbors. UG 3. Build leadership from the bottom up. Many people who KE joined our staff five or ten years ago as field officers are now RW managing multiple field operating units and hundreds of BU staff. Promoting our field leadership from within also means TZ that our leaders are motivated, know our operations inside and out, and are committed to our clients’ success. These field leaders successfully roll out new or improved trainings each week to their staff, a critical part of operating effectively at a MW large scale.