Philanthropist Howard Buffett learns from the seat of his tractor

A span of 2,900 acres of cropland in landlocked Rwanda, encompassing 2,099 smallholder farmers, is the most productive farmland in all of Rwanda. How did they do it? “It helps incredibly that I farm,” says Howard Buffett, whose foundation spent a good amount of effort learning about the needs of Rwanda’s agriculture sector before deploying its assets.

It’s fair to say Buffett is unique among funders. Not because he has a famous father – there are plenty of those –  but because he has earned his stripes from the seat of a tractor.

The importance of better equipping smallholder farmers cannot be overstated. Though most are under 2 hectares (5 acres), they produce approximately a third of the world's food on only 12% of all agricultural land. These family-focused farm systems mainly use family labor — women make up more than 60% of the workforce — and at least part of what they produce is for family consumption.