Funding sustainable agribusinesses in East and West Africa

The Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) (Green Climate Fund, 2018-2030) is a US$58-million impact-equity fund that aims to enhance the livelihoods and climate resilience of 10 million people in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. ARAF invests in early and early-growth stage agribusinesses that help smallholder farmers in these countries become more resilient to climate change.

With an anchor investment of US$26 million from the Green Climate Fund and sponsored by Acumen, ARAF is supported by investors and funders. Canada is the eighth-largest contributor to the Green Climate Fund, with a total contribution of $1.05 billion. As of 2021, ARAF had directly benefited approximately 320,000 farmers, 40% of them women.

One business that has benefited from ARAF is SunCulture, a Kenya-based solar irrigation company that aims to improve local farmers’ access to water. It uses off-grid solar technology to provide reliable access to water, irrigation, lighting and mobile phone charging. SunCulture’s water pumps allow farmers to grow crops throughout the year, even during droughts, and to increase the amount of land under cultivation. The pumps improve productivity by eliminating the need to walk to the river to collect water for crops and livestock, and increase farmers’ yields, resulting in increased incomes, food security and resilience to climate change.

“Since buying SunCulture’s pump, I’m very happy. It has really helped me save the money that I was using on fuel because it only requires sunlight. And now, instead of going all the way to the river, I am able to fetch water just outside the door,” says one smallholder farmer in Nanyuki, Kenya. Loise is reaping the benefits of solar-powered irrigation by spending less time on fetching water and less money on fuel, which translates into greater productivity and higher crop and livestock yields, and ultimately more income and food security for her family.