David Hong

David Hong leads global policy engagement at One Acre Fund, a nonprofit social enterprise that supplies smallholder farmers with the tools and financing they need to grow their way out of hunger and poverty.

DAVID HONG, Global Senior Policy Analyst at One Acre Fund in East Africa Region, talked about One Acre Fund`s role in generating solutions that enables smallholders increase their farm income and escape the trap of hunger and poverty. Mr. Hong addressed the issues that the smallholder farmers, who compose more than 75% of the world’s poor population, face due to living in remote areas and lacking the access to basic agricultural tools and trainings.

After his analysis with them, Hong concluded that these farmers struggle to grow enough crops to feed their families and face an annual “hunger season” of meal skipping. Mr. Hong argued that the substitution could help these families by providing them with a complete service bundle that addresses the full value chain. Such service includes the supply of improved seeds and fertilizers, farming financing inputs, agricultural trainings, as well as an education on profit maximization mechanisms. Hong ended his speech by saying that in One Acre Fund, they measure success in their ability to make more farmers more prosperous as the One Acre Fund always put Farmers First.