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jackline Akinyi in her indegenous vegetable garden.

Growing resilience: Farmers lead the way in Kenya and Rwanda Feature

Picture a farmer in Kenya sowing seeds of managu, an indigenous leafy green packed with nutrients her children need to thrive. Or a farmer in Rwanda planting cover crops to enrich her soil and protect against erosion. These small acts of resilience are happening against a backdrop of enormous challenges: climate change, degraded soils, and rising food insecurity.

Farmers are rising to meet these challenges. One Acre Fund is working with smallholder farmers to strengthen nutritious food production. By growing nutrient-rich indigenous leafy greens in Kenya and planting cover crops in Rwanda, farmers are improving their diets, restoring their soils, and proving that solutions to big challenges can start small.

Reviving Indigenous Leafy Greens in Kenya

Jackline Okumu, a farmer from Kenya’s Nyanza region, stands in her vegetable field, carefully tending to rows of managu and sagaa. With seeds and training provided by One Acre Fund, she has transformed her farm into a source of food security and opportunity. 

Jackline Akinyi in her indegenous vegetable garden.
“Farming allows us to feed our family, educate our children, and continue to develop our home and lives.”

Jackline Okumu

Farmer, Kenya

Jackline is one of 96,000 farmers who accessed managu and sagaa seeds and training from One Acre Fund this year.

Indigenous vegetables like managu and sagaa are nutritional powerhouses, offering significantly more iron and folate than popular exotic crops like cabbage. Yet, for years, these greens have been overlooked—sidelined by limited seed availability and changing dietary habits. That’s beginning to change. With access to seed and practical training, farmers like Jackline are rediscovering the value of these indigenous crops and bringing them back to Kenyan tables.

At One Acre Fund’s 330 rural shops in Kenya, farmers receive seeds alongside training on planting techniques, seed spacing, and fertilizer use to maximize harvests. This year, over 20,600 farmers participated in workshops that also included cooking demonstrations, offering families practical guidance on how to incorporate indigenous vegetables into their meals.

Jackline credits these efforts for her farm’s success. 

Jackline Akinyi in her indegenous vegetable garden.
“I’ve learned how to space seeds for better results and stretch my resources further. This means I can grow enough for my family and sell the rest at the market.”

Jackline Okumu

Farmer, Kenya

Over the past two seasons, the number of families purchasing indigenous greens from One Acre Fund has quadrupled, and diversity of indigenous vegetables on farms has grown by 16% among One Acre Fund farmers, compared to those outside the program.

Farmers are reconnecting with the value of indigenous vegetables through campaigns that build on local knowledge and traditions. Through field demonstrations, radio programs, and text-message reminders, farmers are learning how to grow these greens and why they matter – for their families and their communities. Agricultural shows have brought these lessons to life with cooking demonstrations and tastings of freshly prepared managu and sagaa dishes.

As adoption grows, small innovations are setting the stage for long-term change. In an early-stage pilot, Community Seed Banks are equipping farmers with the skills and knowledge to save and share seeds locally. While still in its early phases, these Community Seed Banks could eventually make seed access more reliable.

Nutrition starts with access. By integrating last-mile distribution, marketing campaigns, seed banks, and farmer training, farmers are adopting these nutrient-dense crops at a higher rate – improving health and building resilience. Together, these efforts are transforming nutrition into a foundation for stronger and more resilient farming communities.

Jackline Akinyi Okumu in her home in Kitt Mikayi, Kenya.

Cover Crops for Resilience in Rwanda

In Rwanda, sloped farmlands face a constant battle against erosion. Over time, this not only strips away fertile top soils but also threatens the long-term productivity of farms. Cover crops like mucuna and sunn hemp are emerging as practical solutions, offering farmers a way to protect their land while improving soil fertility.

Mukanyarwaya farms her land in Rwanda

Through on-farm trials, farmers are testing crop combinations that balance soil protection with productivity. Sunn hemp, for example, has shown promise by reducing weed pressure and restoring soil fertility in maize-bean rotations. These trials are already showing gains in soil health indicators, which in turn boost yields of staple crops like maize and beans.

For Mukanyarwaya Daphrose, a 62-year-old coffee farmer in Huye District in Rwanda, cover crops have made a significant difference. Two years ago, she began planting mucuna on a small section of her coffee fields as part of a cooperative trial supported by One Acre Fund. “Some members were skeptical, but I trusted our agronomists and tried it,” she says. Today, her entire farm is covered with mucuna. “It keeps the soil moist, makes weeding easier, and has improved the quality of my harvest.” Her coffee yield has tripled, enabling her to reinvest in her farm and renovate her home.

Mukanyarwaya stands in her sloped field

Through trials that test crop combinations, farmers are gaining practical insights into how cover crops like sunn hemp and mucuna protect soil and boost yields in maize-bean rotations. Tailored training, field demonstrations, and broader radio soil health campaigns are equipping farmers with the tools and knowledge to integrate these crops into their farms. These combined efforts are paving the way for wider adoption of cover crops and more resilient farming systems across Rwanda.

One Acre Fund is taking early steps to address a key barrier to broader adoption: the limited availability and high cost of cover crop seeds like sunn hemp in local markets. Early efforts to establish a cover crop seed multiplication program aim to make these solutions more affordable and accessible for smallholders across Rwanda.

This progress reflects a larger truth: resilient farms need resilient soil. By blending conservation agriculture with practical, scalable solutions, farmers in Rwanda are cultivating healthier landscapes and more secure livelihoods.

Supporting Farmer-Led Solutions

Nutrition and soil health aren’t just technical challenges – they’re about making choices. Farmers weigh the options, time, and resources it takes to make changes on their farms. Practical guidance and shared learning help farmers see how new practices can work for them. In Kenya, awareness campaigns and practical training are reviving interest in indigenous vegetables. Training sessions, radio programs, social media campaigns and text-message reminders have reached thousands of farmers, encouraging them to grow and consume these nutrient-rich crops. In Rwanda, farmer-led learning and field demonstrations are making regenerative practices like intercropping and cover cropping more accessible.

When information is practical and accessible, farmers can decide what works best for their families and farms. By meeting farmers where they are – with practical tools and training – these programs are driving adoption of practices that improve nutrition, protect soil, and build resilience.

A verdant field is depicted

In Kenya and Rwanda, strengthening nutritious food systems is about more than farming – it’s about building resilience against the region's food security and climate crises. Farmers are adopting practices that improve both their farms and their futures: growing indigenous vegetables that nourish their families, cultivating cover crops that protect vital soils, and increasing the productivity of staple crops that sustain their communities. These efforts show what’s possible when farmers have the tools, knowledge, and support they need to succeed.

This work is supported in part by generous funding from The Rockefeller Foundation to One Acre Fund.

Keywords

Climate Women

Countries

Kenya Rwanda