Seeing the whole farm: A new way to understand farmer progress and prosperity

In Rwanda’s Munini Village in Burera District, 26-year-old Emmanuel Ndayambaje’s farm is alive with activity, especially during harvest time. Emmanuel, a husband and father of two, has been farming for six years. Every corner of his farm reflects both his hard work and his resilience. At the edges of his homestead, avocado trees stand tall. Nearby, a field of maize sways gently in the wind, while rows of potatoes stretch across another plot.

Like many Rwandan farmers, Emmanuel doesn’t rely on just one crop. Instead, he carefully balances staples with higher-value produce, ensuring that when one harvest struggles, another can sustain his household. Emmanuel's farming is how he feeds and provides for his family, and with the right support, he has been able to do just that.

Meeting the reality of diverse and resilient farmers

Across our countries of operation, farmers like Emmanuel grow much more than a few staple crops. In Rwanda, for example, the crops we have traditionally tracked, such as maize, beans, and potatoes, cover just over half of the farmland in some seasons. The rest is a rich mix of bananas, cassava, vegetables, fruit trees, and more. This diversity is intentional, as it helps families spread risk, secure food for the household, and generate income from various sources.

To match this reality, similar to Emmanuel’s experience, we are expanding our support to farmers across their entire farms, not just their staple plots. Today, we provide:

• Fruit trees like avocado and macadamia
• Vegetable seeds to improve nutrition and income
• Market access so high-value crops have a dependable buyer
• Training on intercropping to help farmers get more from every piece of land

By promoting crop diversity, we support farmers in building resilience and achieving prosperity. But to truly understand our impact, we needed a new way to measure it.

Measuring the whole farm

Traditionally, we measured farm yields using crop cuts, a gold-standard method where small sections of a field are randomly selected, harvested, and weighed. While effective for staples like maize or beans, this method becomes more challenging when fields contain multiple crops, when harvests occur in small amounts over time (for crops such as cassava or tomatoes), or when a farmer grows dozens of different crops within and across multiple plots.

To better reflect the reality of farmers’ lives, our Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team developed a new approach; one that was flexible yet robust. Instead of relying on one-time samples, we followed farmers more closely throughout the harvest season to understand the full story of what they grow.

Here’s how it works: when possible, we measure a typical harvest unit, like a bag or a bucket, and ask farmers how many of those they collected. If direct measurement isn’t possible, we ask farmers to estimate their harvest, either in units or kilograms. Because we check in with them every two weeks, their answers are fresh and accurate, not based on long-ago memories. We also compare their answers with past harvest data or crop sales to ensure accuracy.

Some crops, like bananas, don’t come in standard units. In those cases, farmers define their own unit and estimate its value. We then cross-check those estimates with local market prices. For cash crops, farmers often already know their totals or even keep records making the data especially reliable.

This flexible system that we are calling “whole-farm measurement” means each survey is as short as possible to respect farmers’ time, improves accuracy, and captures the true breadth of what they grow.

Early lessons from Rwanda

We piloted whole-farm measurement in Rwanda during a farming season in 2024 and covered more than 36 different crops. 

The results showed that most of the revenue data came from crops that we could measure directly, such as potatoes and beans, for which we weighed harvest units, including bags or baskets. About a quarter of the data came from farmers recalling their harvests, mainly for crops such as sweet potatoes and cassava. These root crops are harvested little by little for family meals, which makes them harder to weigh in bulk. That’s why our team visits farmers every two weeks, so they can easily report these small, frequent harvests while they are still fresh in mind.

One of the most striking findings was just how many different crops contribute to a farmer's income. In the trial, no single crop, apart from potatoes, accounted for more than 10% of the total revenue. Every other crop contributed smaller but meaningful portions, showing that no single harvest tells the full story. This is why looking at the whole farm is so important.

We also found that the farmers we served were using farm supplies like fertilizer on a wider variety of crops, not just maize, beans, and potatoes. They were also growing more high-value crops such as vegetables or coffee. This diversity means families have more food to eat at home and more produce to sell at the market, helping them earn higher income and build greater financial security. Overall, these changes revealed a more comprehensive picture, showing that farmers were already achieving approximately 15% more total farm impact than earlier measurements had indicated.

Evolving to support farmers better

Whole-farm measurement is about capturing the nuances and actual impact of diverse, dynamic farms. By measuring the whole-farm impact, we will develop stronger, data-driven strategies to better support farmers across all their crops, and ensure we continue to generate a meaningful impact for the farmers we serve.