{"id":1477,"date":"2026-01-23T06:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-foundation\/?p=1477"},"modified":"2026-01-23T11:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:26:26","slug":"investing-in-climate-resilience-for-smallholder-farmers-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.autodesk.com\/autodesk-foundation\/2026\/01\/23\/investing-in-climate-resilience-for-smallholder-farmers-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in climate resilience for smallholder farmers in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our investment in Trellis, an Acumen Investment Initiative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Smallholder farmers (SHFs) produce up to 70%<\/a> of the food in low- and middle-income countries. Yet they are among the most climate vulnerable people on the planet. Increasingly severe and unpredictable droughts, floods, and heatwaves are threatening their livelihoods and, by extension, the food security of more than 2 billion people<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite agriculture\u2019s central role in emerging economies, it remains one of the most underfunded sectors in the climate finance landscape. In 2023, only 0.8% of climate finance<\/a>, just $5.5 billion, was directed toward small-scale agri-food systems. Even considering climate finance for the entire agri-food systems, which is at $28.5b, it is still at least seven times lower than the most conservative estimated needs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To build resilience for vulnerable communities, we need to invest in innovation at the ground level. That starts with smallholder farmers and the early-stage companies working to empower them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image courtesy of Acumen<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Why Trellis?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Autodesk Foundation is proud to support Trellis<\/a>, a $25 million philanthropically backed investment initiative launched by Acumen<\/a> to invest in pre-seed and seed stage companies serving smallholder farmers across East and West Africa. Trellis is one of five initiatives under Acumen\u2019s Patient Capital approach, an impact-first investment model that embraces longer time horizons, greater risk tolerance, and flexible structuring to support solutions that traditional capital often overlooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative focuses on deploying capital to four agricultural business models that drive both income generation and climate resilience for SHFs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n