Climate adaptation
One Acre Fund is focused on helping farmers adapt to the rapidly changing climate. Adaption is critical - hundreds of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa depend on agriculture to support their families.
We train smallholders to adopt climate-smart practices to increase farm yields sustainably. We also support income diversification by offering a range of products from trees to sunflowers, and design safety nets to help ensure financial stability.
Adaptation first: Our top priority is adaptation initiatives that safeguard livelihoods and enable smallholder families to thrive despite the rapidly changing climate.
Boost farm income: We equip smallholders to sustainably increase their farm income by continually reinvesting in – rather than degrading – the environment that supports them. Tailored interventions – from optimised seeds to climate-smart training – maximize yields, increase market access, and raise incomes sustainably. In 2022, we equipped farmers to achieve $316 million in new profits and assets – marking over $1 billion in cumulative farmer impact generated since our founding in 2006.
Ensure income protection: We are in the early stages of developing micro-insurance products to increase affordability and provide reliable disaster relief in times of low yields due to weather events.
Supply climate-smart training: We provide tailored agricultural training and advice aimed specifically at tackling climate-related issues - including pest management, erosion control, composting, and pH balance improvement.
Embed resilience: We support robust plant health and enhance resilience to stress through our weather-based guidance on opitimized agronomy. We also promote the diversification of crops and assets, creating resilience and boosting long-term economic security.
See our climate adaptation work in action
Why investing in variety is crucial for farming success
Meet Angelus Mwapinga, a 50-year-old farmer from Tanzania. Determined to send his seven children to school, he leveraged credit from One Acre Fund to buy high quality farming inputs leading to a 20% increase in his harvest. His success means that he has been able to expand his farm, now growing potatoes and fruit tree seedlings. Diversification like this helps protect him against climate shocks.
Claudine Ayinkamiye: Farmer, tree entrepreneur, climate adapter
In just the first season farming with One Acre Fund, Claudine Ayinkamiye, a 30-year-old farmer from Rwanda, managed to produce 900 kilos of potatoes and maize. Thanks to this surplus, she was able to invest in different crops and trees, making her better equipped to withstand erratic weather due to climate change.
Why we’re introducing disease-resistant potato seeds in Rwanda
In 2022, One Acre Fund Rwanda launched a program to distribute high-yielding, disease-resistant potato seed to the country’s smallholders to improve harvests and incomes.
Seeds of Change: How early-maturing sunflower seeds are changing farmers’ fortunes
Discover how smallholder farmers in Tanzania are adopting early-maturing and drought-resistant sunflower seeds and are reshaping agricultural practices in the face of an ever-changing climate.
Discover more of our climate resilience work
One Acre Fund supports smallholder farmers to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis through on-farm tree planting and soil health practices that sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
One Acre Fund advocates for smallholder farmers to be put front and center of global climate decisions. This is pivotal for achieving global climate goals. In our work we collaborate with farmers to develop solutions that help them build their climate resilience.