FSD Africa to fund new small-scale farmers’ agroforestry projects in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.

FSD Africa and Rabobank ACORN / Rabo Foundation have launched a collaboration to help African small-scale farmers transition to Agroforestry, a sustainable and climate resilient farming practice.

Acorn – Agroforestry Carbon removal units for the Organic Restoration of Nature, is a program being developed by Rabobank to unlock the international carbon market for smallholder farmers in the developing world. It aims to help farmers transition to agroforestry at scale and monetize the carbon stored in the trees planted through Acorn’s global transparent and technology-enabled marketplace for carbon sequestration. The collaboration will focus on kick-starting new small-scale farmers’ agroforestry projects in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.

FSD Africa together with Rabo Foundation will provide finance to the small-scale farmers to help them transition to sustainable agroforestry. The local implementation partners will collect the farmer data and onboard the farmers onto the Acorn platform. They will then be able to sell carbon removal units (CRU) to corporate off-takers through Acorn’s technology-enabled marketplace. The proceeds of the CRUs will be used to pay back the loan. For FSD Africa as the financier, testing this innovative finance structure will be an important outcome of this first scale phase.

Mark Napier, CEO, FSD Africa: ”We are proud to acknowledge that this program will contribute to 8 out of 17 UN SDGs, including those related to poverty reduction, food security, reduction of pollution, economic productivity, resilience, sustainability of forests and capital mobilization.” www.fsdafrica.org