Innovative Agriculture in Rwanda
by Jesse Goldfarb, AB 2008

Jesse Goldfarb planted the first trees on what will become an experimentation and demonstration farm at the new One Acre Fund Rwanda headquarters.

I started working with One Acre Fund in Rwanda about a year and a half ago. As an anthropology major, I had gone abroad to Kenya and quickly fell in love with East Africa. After college I worked for a while for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on its East Africa programs. At the same time, I had become very interested in agriculture, and, following NDI, I spent some time starting a small farm on my mother's land in upstate New York. When I saw the job posting for One Acre Fund at idealist.org, it immediately struck me because the job combined my two large interests of development and agriculture. I was also looking for something more than an entry-level position, something with true responsibility. One Acre Fund is great in that regard because it is a startup organization. In fact, we were recently named one of the "five emerging Innovators in global development" by Devex.

One Acre Fund operates with the broad goal of serving small farmers. It currently has running programs in Kenya and Rwanda, but we will also be opening offices in Burundi and Ghana this year. We are a young organization (about four years old), and we serve farmers by providing a complete bundle of support: extension services and training; credit for improved seeds and fertilizer; post-harvest support, including storage bags and links to markets; and insurance for severe drought. This simple but comprehensive approach has raised farm income by anywhere from 50-100 percent depending on the farmer, crop, and region. We currently serve 28,000 families in Western Kenya and 30,000 families in Rwanda, and we continue to grow rapidly. We also operate with a social entrepreneurship mentality, with the farmers paying for our service.

In Rwanda I manage the Innovation Department, which looks for new products and services to create additional impact for our clients. This department is also responsible for the agricultural education programs necessary for the uptake of these new products. Some recent innovations have been tree seed packets and nursery management education, agricultural lime for acidic soils, and a number of other agricultural techniques we promote through the education program. I also manage the Seed Department, which is responsible for trials of new seed varieties to produce high-quality maize and bean seed.

Approaching my work with an anthropological mindset allows me to better understand Rwandan farmers and how best to serve them. Anthropology taught me the importance of understanding the local language, putting myself in someone else's shoes, and adapting interventions to a local context. Farming is always dependent on local culture and environment. Understanding this fact is paramount to adapting our work more specifically to the differing needs of our clients.