Climate mitigation
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.
Smallholder farmers produce just 0.6% of global greenhouse emissions each year and should not be burdened with the costs associated with mitigation. However, smallholder farmers are still supporting global mitigation targets through initiatives like on-farm tree planting and there is an enormous opportunity to expand these efforts.
Reduce emissions: One Acre Fund is focused on ensuring that smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa have the knowledge and support so that they don't emulate the climate-destructive practices of industrial agriculture. Rather, we provide training on climate-smart farming practices that include promoting efficient inorganic fertilizer and organic compost usage to improve soil health.
Increase forest restoration: We encourage agroforestry and distribute timber and fruit trees as part of the largest farmer-led tree-planting initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa. This program aims to plant 1 billion trees within a decade to enhance soil health and biodiversity and sequester carbon. In 2022, we equipped 2.8 million farmers to plant nearly 62 million new trees, encompassing 45 species.
Improve soil vitality: We equip farmers with soil-saving techniques to prevent erosion, combat degradation and store carbon. In 2021, One Acre Fund equipped 60,000 farmers to apply agricultural lime, a $10-20 annual investment per acre that improves the long-term pH balance of acidic soils and can increase crop yields by up to 20-40%.
Tree planting success in Zambia
Hear from Zambian farmer Edwin Swale about how tree planting is not only improving soil health on his farm, but also providing him with another source of income via our pilot carbon credit program.
See our climate mitigation work in action
Trina Mwiinga grows trees on her farm in Zambia with One Acre Fund. In addition to the benefits trees provide - boosting her crop harvest, by protecting them from climate breakdown and providing shade for her animals from extreme heat - she is paid to look after them by One Acre Fund.
Maintaining and improving soil health is essential to ensuring farmers can stay resilient in the face of increasing pressures on land and a changing climate. Healthy soils produce better harvests, meaning farmers can harvest more even on small areas of land, and healthy soils mean healthier crops that are more resilient to extreme weather events.
Discover more of our climate resilience work
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.
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.