One Acre Fund

Kenya

Important Information from Kiva about One Acre Fund

Kiva is not able to score One Acre Fund in the star rating system because the organization’s business model sufficiently differs from that of a microfinance institution, upon which the star rating system is based. Kiva has conducted onsite due diligence of One Acre Fund and Kiva’s Investment Committee approved the organization as a partner.

One Acre Fund’s business model focuses on working with smallholder farmers across Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi to promote an integrated agriculture package which includes training, reliable input supply (i.e., fertilizer, seeds), credit and insurance. One Acre Fund enrolls farmers in its program during the months of July through October in preparation for the following growing season. One Acre Fund also purchases fertilizer and important inputs during these months as prices in Kenya are historically low during these months, allowing cost savings to be passed on to farmers. In February of the following year, One Acre Fund delivers the pre-purchased fertilizer, seeds, and other important inputs to farmers in market areas near their farms. During the growing season, One Acre Fund continues to provide farmers with training and support, and allows farmers to make payments as frequently or infrequently as they wish. At harvest time in October, farmers are required to finish repaying their loans for which they enrolled in the previous year.

One Acre Fund loans on Kiva will:

1. Be sourced from Kenya.
2. Have a disbursement date sometime during the months of July through October.
3. Have the input supplies delivered to growers in February for the growing season.
4. Be due in full the following October at harvest time.

Note: Any payments collected before the official October due date will be treated as repayments on Kiva, reported by One Acre Fund, and repaid to Kiva lenders upon receipt from One Acre Fund.

Among other risks described on the Risk and Due Diligence page, Kiva lenders are also exposed to the risk associated with the possibility of major crop failure due to drought, disease or other natural disaster or uncontrollable event. In this event, One Acre Fund’s policy is to forgive the loan to the farmer to ensure that they retain sufficient resources to feed themselves and their family.

From One Acre Fund:

Most of the world’s poor are farmers. One Acre Fund is a new social enterprise that focuses on helping hard-working farm families in East Africa to increase farm profit. One Acre Fund loans farm inputs to families (seed and fertilizer), gives in-depth agriculture training, and provides harvest market access. One Acre Fund delivers everything within walking distance of the farmer and is increasingly using its distribution network to promote productive products. For example, all One Acre Fund families in Kenya receive tree seeds, vegetable seeds, and health products. The organization started in 2006, serves 55,000 farm families as of August 2011, and is roughly doubling in size every year. Its ambition is to help spark a revolution in lending focused on the world’s tens of millions of underserved farm families.

One Acre Fund’s motto is Farmers First and the organization's values are:

Humble Service - We meet farmers in their fields and we get our shoes muddy. Farmers are our customers and we serve them with humility.
Hard Work - We work hard every day. We execute with world-class professionalism and business excellence. Farmers deserve nothing less.
Continual Growth - We improve every season. We work with determination to meet our goals and then stretch ourselves by raising the bar even higher.
Family of Leaders - We bring together the best leaders and build long-term careers. We care for team members like family.
Dreaming Big - We envision serving millions of farm families. We build for scale with every idea and solution.
Integrity - We do what we say, and our words match our values.

Environmental Sustainability

One Acre Fund has a unique, multi-year relationship with the farmers that we serve. Unlike many organizations and companies that do a one-time training or a one-time sale, One Acre Fund is genuinely concerned about the long-term sustainability of our farm families, and we work hard to protect their environments. We believe that our farmers make a uniquely positive contribution to the long-term health of their soils and to their environments, and you can read more at: http://www.oneacrefund.org/environmental_sustainability.

Why Kiva Works With One Acre Fund:

Kiva is working with One Acre Fund to expand access to critical agricultural inputs, pre-harvest on credit to farmers traditionally neglected or ignored by the banking and microfinance sector. One Acre Fund’s clients are subsistence farmers who grow maize, beans, and other subsistence crops to feed their families. These farmers lack quality agricultural inputs, important training, and credit to purchase inputs in order to maximize yields. One Acre Fund provides a package including:

Reliable provision of agricultural inputs that are tested for quality and efficacy in the local agricultural environment and delivered on-time at planting season to market areas near farmers’ plots

Training on yield maximization of maize and other subsistence crops through weeding, proper tilling, top dressing, spacing, storing, and other agriculture best practices

Provision of inputs on credit to farmers with repayment indexed to harvest time

Catastrophic crop insurance coupled with life insurance and funeral insurance

Inclusion of value adding services to farmers in the input package such as anti-weevil repellant, storage bags, sukuma seeds, tree seeds, deworming tablets, water purification solution, and solar lights (optional)

As a maturing but early-stage organization, One Acre Fund continues to require funding from organizations like Kiva in order to provide its package to farmers on loan.

Repayment Performance on Kiva

	This Field Partner	All Kiva Partners
Start Date On Kiva	Sep 19, 2011	Oct 12, 2005
Total Loans	$1,228,825	$426,651,775
Amount of Raised Inactive Loans	$0	$238,975
Number Of Raised Inactive Loans	0	213
Amount of Paying Back Loans	$626,450	$94,149,725
Number Of Paying Back Loans	855	101,646
Amount of Ended Loans	$602,375	$332,263,075
Number Of Ended Loans	881	435,701
Delinquency Rate	0.00%	1.91%
Amount In Arrears	$0	$1,156,960
Outstanding Portfolio	$626,450	$60,497,022
Number of Loans Delinquent	0	9,042
Default Rate	0.76%	0.97%
Amount of Ended Loans Defaulted	$4,567	$3,220,059
Amount of Ended Loans	$602,375	$332,263,075
Number Of Ended Loans Defaulted	106	9,823
Currency Exchange Loss Rate	0.00%	0.02%
Amount of Currency Exchange Loss	$0	$77,435
Refund Rate	0.09%	0.95%
Amount of Refunded Loans	$1,150	$4,068,925
Number Of Refunded Loans	1	4,589

Loan Characteristics On Kiva

	This Field Partner	All Kiva Partners
Loans To Women Entrepreneurs	68.88%	74.04%
Average Loan Size	$60	$407
Average Individual Loan Size	$0	$646
Average Group Loan Size	$708	$1,744
Average Number Of Entrepreneurs Per Group	11.8	8
Average GDP Per Capita (PPP) in Local Country	$1,445	$3,345
Average Loan Size / GDP Per Capita (PPP)	4.14%	12.17%
Average Time To Fund A Loan	7.25 days	4.68 days
Average Dollars Raised Per Day Per Loan	$8.24	$86.95
Average Loan Term	9.11 months	9.61 months

Journaling Performance on Kiva

	This Field Partner	All Kiva Partners
Total Journals	863	203,779
Journaling Rate	97.84%	39.99%
Average Number Of Comments Per Journal	0.00	0.11
Average Number Of Recommendations Per Journal	0.00	2.72

Borrowing Cost Comparison (based on 2011 data)

	This Field Partner	Median for MFI Peers in Country	All Kiva Partners
Portfolio Yield	N/A	N/A	35.02%
Profitability (Return on Assets)	N/A	N/A	-0.38%
Average Loan Size (% of Per Capita Income)	N/A	51.50%	46.53%

Country Fast Facts

Country:: Kenya
Capital:: Nairobi
Official Language:: English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages
Population:: 32,021,856
Avg Annual Income:: $1,445
Labor Force:: agriculture 75%
Population Below Poverty Line:: 50%
Literacy Rate:: 85.10%
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000):: 62.62 deaths
Life Expectancy:: 44.94 years