One-Acre Fund is a social enterprise that was launched in 2007 with the aim of increasing income for smallholder farmers.
The event saw several dignitaries such as the Deputy Director General of Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), Dr Charles Bucagu, the deputy CEO of APTC, Canisius Kayitera, as well as Eric Pohlman, One-Acre Fund’s Co-Founder and Rwanda Country Director.
The event looked at the highlights from previous seasons, such as the recently signed domestic seed production partnership agreement, and focused on gathering feedback from government partners on how TUBURA can improve collaboration with the government.
“Agriculture is what creates the basis of living in any community. All the engineers, doctors, business people, and others in the country look to farmers for the living.” said Pohlman.
This was acknowledged by the attendees who spoke highly of the contributions TUBURA made towards bettering the overall productivity in Rwanda’s agriculture sector and put forward areas where TUBURA need to put more focus for the development of the sector as it has always been doing.
“I believe strongly that a strong private sector that works closely with our government in many areas will lead to an accelerated progress towards the goals we have set for ourselves in Vision 2050,” said Dr Telesphore Ndabamenye, the head of crop production and food security at RAB. “Organisations like TUBURA are bringing us closer to our aspirations,” he added.
This season, One Acre Fund is supplying subsidized inputs (seed and fertilizer) in partnership with the Agro Processing Trust Corporation, the national distributor. Inputs are delivered to Agro-dealers and One Acre Fund’s pick-up stations. One Acre Fund has begun to distribute what they expect will amount to more than 11,000 tons of fertilizer and 1,000 tons of hybrid maize seed to more than 300,000 farmer households across 15 districts.
Launched in Rwanda in 2007, One Acre Fund-TUBURA provides financing for farm inputs, training farmers in agriculture techniques, and educating them on how to minimize post-harvest losses and maximize market prices.
On average, farmers working with One Acre Fund – TUBURA realise 100% return on their investment and significantly increase farm income on every planted acre. The organisation currently serves more than 515,000 farmers across Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi, and is growing quickly.
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