The impact of One Acre Fund’s small farm program

This report presents the results from our independent analysis of One Acre Fund’s (1AF) randomized control trial in the Teso region of Kenya. The main aim of this study is to assess program impacts on maize yields and profits from maize and beans. The results show that 1AF participation leads to statistically and economically significant increases in both yields and profits: 1AF participation resulted in a roughly 34 percent increase in maize yields per farmer, and almost 20 percent increase in maize and bean profits. We also investigate whether 1AF participation has persistent impacts for farmers even once they have stopped participating, but we found no differences between control group farmers who were former clients and those that had never participated. Finally, using a quasi-experimental approach using data from the four surrounding districts in which 1AF operates, we can see that results from propensity score analysis yields impact estimates that are somewhat larger in magnitude than those from the experimental analysis. These differences could be driven by differential program impact across districts, or due to methodological differences between the experimental and quasi-experimental approaches.