MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: One Acre Fund Expands Agricultural Lending, Training Operations to Malawi, Uganda

One Acre Fund, a Kenya-based nonprofit agricultural organisation, recently expanded its operations to include Malawi and Uganda. The operations there, which were launched as pilot programmes in 2013 and 2014, respectively, serve approximately 2,600 farmers in three Malawian districts and approximately 3,700 farmers in two districts of Uganda. Participating farmers receive a bundle of agricultural inputs and services on credit. The Fund’s repayment system allows farmers to make payments at any time during the growing season on the condition that the total amount is repaid by the season’s end. The size of One Acre Fund’s loans vary depending on the amount of land that the participant has registered. The farmers are required to attend training sessions and pay a small deposit as part of the loan conditions.

Andrew Youn, the founder and executive director of One Acre Fund, stated that “The majority of the world’s poor are hard-working smallholder farmers who can reach their full potential with access to finance, training, and services. I’m thrilled to announce that One Acre Fund is now able to serve smallholder farmers in Malawi and Uganda and we will continue to grow our program until no farmer goes hungry”.

One Acre Fund was founded in Kenya and currently serves approximately 300,000 smallholder farmers in East and Southern Africa.

By Imke Herholdt, Research Associate

About One Acre Fund
Based in Kenya, One Acre Fund works to empower families in East and Southern Africa to escape hunger and poverty by offering services such as financing for farm inputs, distribution of seed and fertilizer, training on agricultural techniques, and market facilitation to maximize profits from harvest sales. As of December 2014, One Acre Fund had total assets of USD 29 million.

Additional Sources and Resources
[1] One Acre Fund Expands Smallholder Farmer Services to Malawi and Uganda
[2] Next Billion: One Acre Fund Expands Smallholder Farmer Services to Malawi and Uganda

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