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It's time to invest in a sustainable food future.
Across the globe, bold entrepreneurs are rethinking how we grow, protect, and deliver food, so that tomatoes still sing in BLTs, mangoes still whirl in smoothies, and maize is still part of daily meals for millions.
At Acumen, we invest Patient Capital into these innovators, helping them turn brilliant ideas into scalable businesses that protect crops, strengthen farmers’ livelihoods, and reimagine food for a hotter, less predictable planet. We believe markets can work for all of us – not against us – so the meals we love today can still be on the table tomorrow.
Try being an iceberg lettuce in this heat.
Climate Challenge: Extreme heat
Extreme heat stresses crops and reduces yields. It also damages pollination processes and shortens growing seasons, especially for temperature-sensitive crops like lettuce.
Climate-smart solution
Heat-tolerant seeds, mulching, shade planting, and greenhouses help farmers protect crops from rising temperatures, reduce heat stress, and maintain productivity in extreme conditions.
Extreme heat is putting delicate crops like lettuce at risk. It stresses crops, reduces yield, can damage pollination processes and shortens growing seasons.
Company spotlight
SunCulture
Backed by the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), irrigation solutions like SunCulture’s solar water pumps support evaporation and deliver consistent moisture to the roots of plants. SunCulture can scale to reach 90% of farmers in sub-Saharan agriculture who lack irrigation, improving their yields and helping them adapt to climate change.
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Movie night? Not without me.
Climate Challenge: Drought & floods
Climate change intensifies the extremes. Droughts dry out soil and reduce water for crops like maize. Floods wash away topsoil, destroy crops, and contaminate water sources.
Climate-smart solution
Drip irrigation, drought-resistant seeds, and water-retaining soil practices help farmers adapt to increasingly erratic rainfall and water scarcity.
Droughts and floods are threatening staple crops across the world. Droughts dry out soil while floods wash away topsoil, destroy crops, and contaminate water sources.
Company spotlight
Warc Africa
When Nigeria’s weather swings from drought to flood, Warc Africa keeps farmers one step ahead. Acumen investee, Warc Africa, builds critical infrastructure for communities of farmers cultivating maize. Powered by our Patient Capital, they help improve farmer practices and soil health by providing training and selling high-quality inputs so farmers can feed their families with regenerative agriculture.
Ever try a BLT without the T? Sad.
Climate Challenge: Pests & diseases
Warmer, wetter climates create ideal conditions for pests and pathogens to thrive on crops like tomatoes. This leads to more frequent and severe infestations that can wipe out harvests.
Climate-smart solution
Resistant crop varieties, crop rotation, integrated pest management, and greenhouses reduce pest and disease damage without heavy chemical use.
Tomatoes are under pressure from disease and pests. Pests and pathogens thrive in warmer, and wetter climates which can wipe out harvests.
Company spotlight
FarmWorks
Pests and disease wreak havoc on tomato harvests in Kenya, but with support from the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), FarmWorks provides farmers with improved inputs and training on pest and disease control. The result: fewer losses and higher incomes for farmers, and a surplus of tomatoes available in markets.
Try starting your morning without me.
Climate Challenge: Soil degradation
Erosion, nutrient loss, and salinization reduce the fertility and productivity of farmland for beloved crops like coffee and tea. Climate change speeds up this degradation.
Climate-smart solution
Farmers restore soil health through composting, cover crops, agroforestry, and conservation agriculture, helping rebuild fertility for long-term productivity.
Soil degradation is making it harder to grow coffee and tea across the world. Erosion and nutrient loss reduces the productivity of farmland for the crops behind our beloved beverages.
Company spotlight
Young Mountain Tea
On Himalayan slopes once stripped of life, women farmers are restoring the land leaf by leaf. Backed by Acumen’s patient capital, Young Mountain Tea helps smallholder farmers reintroduce tea cultivation and locally produce premium export teas, reviving soil health and ensuring that profits flow directly to the women who cultivate every harvest.
