Eric Pohlman was announced today as the winner of the
2015 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, Endowed by the
Rockefeller Foundation, for his work in developing highly innovative programs
that are transforming subsistence agriculture in rural Rwanda. Pohlman’s
collaborative work with farmers has made it possible for smallholders in Rwanda
and other developing African countries to escape hunger and poverty and improve
their livelihoods.
Pohlman will be
formally presented with the $10,000 “Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research
and Application, Endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation” on October 14, 2015, in
a ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, as part of the 2015 World Food Prize
international symposium.
A native of the
United States, Pohlman, 33, currently serves as Rwanda Country Director and
Senior Partner at the social enterprise One Acre Fund. In developing his vision
to help poor farmers better afford modern agricultural technology, Pohlman was
inspired by the great agricultural scientist and World Food Prize Founder
Norman Borlaug’s desire to expand the Green Revolution. Pohlman recognized a
major barrier preventing its spread to Africa was the lack of access to credit
for subsistence farmers. To that end, Pohlman was instrumental in framing the
implementation of an innovative farm finance model, which currently serves
100,000 farm families in southwest Rwanda.
The announcement was
made by C.D. Glin, Associate Director for the Rockefeller Foundation, Africa
Regional Office at the Africa Green Revolution Forum in Lusaka, Zambia.
“This work aligns
with the Foundation’s current exploration for an integrated approach to
reducing post-harvest loss reduction, where we have learned that increasing
farmers’ access to technologies and finance helps to increase yields and hence
their income, leading to greater food security and a more sustained livelihood.
Eric Pohlman and his team are making a tremendous difference in helping to
improve the lives of the Africa’s small holder farmer, who is essentially the
backbone of the sector,” said Glin.
The social enterprise
Pohlman co-founded, One Acre Fund, provides asset-based financing and
agriculture training services to smallholder farmers in East Africa to reduce
hunger and poverty. Pohlman’s bold choice not to focus on high-value export
crops was the impetus for the incredible growth of the organization. Rather, he
chose to go against the grain and shift attention to increasing the production
of staple foods for subsistence farmers, which has proved extremely successful
as demonstrated by the organization’s expansion to over 3,000 field-based staff
supporting over 280,000 farm families since 2006.
"Like Dr.
Borlaug, Eric Pohlman has been at the forefront of applying scientific rigor to
his methods in farmers' fields in Rwanda through One Acre Fund’s concept of “behavioral
technology”," said Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, President of the World
Food Prize. "Through One Acre Fund, which he co-founded, Eric serves
smallholder farmers by truly listening to their needs and the agricultural
conditions under which they work, and then based on their input, developing
science-based education, innovation, and training, and taking it directly to
farmers and local community leaders. This is having great success in broadly
disseminating the Green Revolution in Africa, thus fulfilling one of Dr.
Borlaug’s most ardent dreams," Quinn concluded.
His passion for
working with farmers to provide them with the full range of tools they need to
improve subsistence farming is summed up by Pohlman: “Farmers are at the center
of our health, our economy, and our environment. As community members it is
easy to spin around discussing the big problems of hunger, poverty, and climate
change. I believe this is why Dr. Borlaug struck such a chord in the world. He
ripped through the husk and got right to the kernel. “Take it to the farmer” he
said. It’s that simple. We need to do everything we can to deliver the best
science and the best services to farmers because they have the most important
job in our communities - growing our food.”
A graduate of Georgetown
University in the United States and a former Peace Corps volunteer, Pohlman’s
professional endeavors have focused exclusively on Africa, where his
contributions to One Acre’s unique credit system have made technology more
affordable for smallholders. The organization has an average 98% on-time
repayment rate for its loans.
“Dr. Borlaug confided
in a family member late in life that his biggest regret was that the Green
Revolution did not reach farmers in Africa, that the breakthrough seeds got
stuck somewhere in the Indian Ocean or somewhere between the laboratory and the
farmer’s field. I think Dr. Borlaug would be energized by our progress at One
Acre Fund but would push us to do more. One Acre Fund is part of an incredible
effort by leaders, scientists, and field staff across the continent to deliver
on the promise of the Green Revolution. Together let us commit to erasing Dr.
Borlaug’s regret and keep farmers first,” said Eric Pohlman.
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