The seeds of change helping African farmers grow out of poverty Andrew Youn
(Voice-over) Andrew Youn:
I have incredible belief
in the strength and power
of African farmers.
The farmers I get to serve
are incredibly inspiring,
hardworking and confident, mostly women,
that earn a better life
for their families.
They have an incredible amount of power.
They’re just not always equipped
with the right tools.
So my organization makes
a few little tweaks
and enables farm families to succeed
at a whole nother level.
At One Acre Fund, we like to say
farmers stand at the center of the world.
[Therese Niyonsaba, Farmer]
(Voice-over) (In Kinyarwanda)
My name is Therese Niyonsaba.
I started working with TUBURA in 2018.
[In Rwanda, One Acre Fund operates
under the name Tubura,
which means “to grow exponentially.“]
(Voice-over) TN: I heard about TUBURA
when the field officer came to meet
farmers who had joined before me.
I had seen how they were farming
and I asked them,
“Where do you get the fertilizer
to yield such a good harvest?”
They told me they get it from TUBURA.
[Price Claudine, Field Officer
ONE ACRE FUND / TUBURA]
(Voice-over) (In Kinyarwanda)
PC: I first met Therese in 2018.
She was eager to learn
modern agricultural methods.
(Women speaking)
TN: My harvest was not enough
to feed my family.
I struggled to feed my children.
I decided to expand my land
to increase my harvest.
AY: Most of the world’s poor are farmers,
and so when farmers
become more productive,
then they earn more income,
and mass numbers of people
move out of poverty.
They produce more food
for their communities and end hunger.
From the farmer’s perspective, basically,
One Acre Fund provides a small loan
that makes these simple
farm inputs affordable.
So this is, for example,
professional seed,
which is 100 percent natural,
locally produced;
a tiny microdose of fertilizer,
which is necessary for plant nutrients;
and, for example, tree seedlings.
Then we provide physical delivery
of these farm inputs
and then training.
(Voice-over) PC: With TUBURA,
we improved planting techniques.
The skills the farmers learned include
fertilizer application
and using selected seed
to yield a good harvest.
We also learned to plant in a line.
That helped us to get a better harvest.
AY: We are an agricultural organization.
Therefore, nearly all of our staff live
in rural places near the farmers.
And so it’s just so obvious to me that
to provide effective service,
we need to be as close as possible.
PC: Before the inputs were
close to the farmers,
they had to travel long distances
and even pay for transport
to pick them up.
But today, they immediately
take their inputs home.
(Voice-over) PC: When farmers
are harvesting,
I visit them in their field
to check if the crops
are ready to be harvested.
I advise them to wait
until the crops are ready
and are more useful to them.
(Voice-over) TN: After joining TUBURA,
my harvest remarkably increased.
We can eat. We are so happy.
And we sell the surplus of our harvest.
AY: Today, we serve
about a million families
in our full-service program
and a little more than a million families
through our work with partners.
(Voice-over) PC: My relationship
with Therese is good.
Every time I visit her, she is so happy.
AY: In a nutshell, we have basically
three goals with this Audacious proposal.
One is to expand our direct
full-service program
to reach two and a half million
families per year by 2026,
which, more than 10 million children
are living in those families.
We can also hope by 2026
to serve an additional
4.3 million families per year,
together with these
kind of operational partners
in the government and private sector.
And then lastly, we want to help shape
a more environmentally appropriate
green revolution.
There’s an incredible opportunity
for farmers to lead the way
to lead to a more sustainable society,
both in how we shape food systems
and having more diverse food systems,
but also, for example, planting
tons and tons of trees.
We can now realistically
kick off a campaign
to plant about a billion trees
in the coming decade.
(Voice-over) TN: After working
with TUBURA, I was able to build my house.
I was able to buy a solar light.
I have light in my house!
My children are eating. No problem.
I’m so happy!
Working with TUBURA gave me value.
TUBURA is at my heart.
I am so happy with TUBURA.
(Music)