Category: Blogs

How one idea turned post-harvest loss into a thriving agribusiness in Dodoma

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In the fast-growing city of Dodoma, where movement never slows and opportunity often hides in plain sight, a small but striking shop is quietly changing the narrative of agriculture.

Set between a fuel station, busy ATM points, and everyday commerce, MAMA HEALTH ORGANIC SHOP stands with quiet confidence. Its shelves carry more than products; they carry a story of resilience, reinvention, and what becomes possible when young people are given the right pathways.

At the centre of it all is Aslatu Nguku, a 30-year-old agripreneur whose journey reflects a deeper shift taking place across Tanzania’s agricultural landscape. But her story did not begin here.

Before the shop, before the brand, before the customers, there was frustration.

Aslatu had been navigating agriculture like many young people do: with effort, but without direction. She watched as fruits and vegetables spoiled before reaching markets. She saw value disappearing in real time.

“I used to see farmers losing so much after harvest. It was painful because you know the effort that goes into producing that food,” she recalls. “That’s when I started asking myself, what if we don’t let it go to waste?”

That question would change everything.

Instead of seeing loss, she began to see potential. Instead of accepting the system as it was, she began to imagine what it could become.

Her turning point came through the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) program, an initiative designed to unlock opportunities for young people across agricultural value chains.

“I didn’t just learn skills. I was exposed to a whole system people, institutions, markets. That’s what changed my mindset,” she says.

Through YEFFA, she was linked to the Vocational Education and Training Authority (VETA), where she gained practical, hands-on training in value addition and food processing. What had once been perishable became preservable. What had once been wasted became valuable.

Among her early creations was a product that would soon define her brand: DRY VEGI-FRUIT BISCUITS, a naturally flavored, nutritious, and made without added sugar. “They started as an idea in my kitchen. Today, they are one of my best selling products,” she says.

As her confidence grew, so did her exposure. Through YEFFA, she participated in the Nane Nane International Agricultural Exhibition, where she showcased her products and connected with a wider network of stakeholders. She also attended the JUAKALI Exhibition in Nairobi, expanding her knowledge and seeing firsthand how small enterprises can scale across borders.

Behind her steady rise was a strong system of support. Through connections facilitated by YEFFA, she accessed the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO), where she obtained her first food dryer allowing her to increase production and maintain quality. Her products were standardized, branded, and fitted with barcodes, opening doors to formal markets.

Through Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT), she secured the shop space she now operates from along with initial support to cover rent. What once seemed out of reach became real.

Today, her business is structured, visible, and growing. Using a motorbike, she distributes her products across Dodoma, serving customers who value both health and convenience. What began as a personal hustle has evolved into a small but impactful enterprise.

“I started this alone. Now I have a team one permanent person in the shop and seven other casual labors supporting sourcing and processing. This is how agriculture creates jobs,” she says.

Her transformation is not only economic it is deeply personal. She has purchased land and is preparing to build her own home. Her products are now reaching markets beyond Tanzania, including Kenya.

When she reflects on her journey, the contrast is clear.

“Before, my future felt uncertain. Today, I see progress. And tomorrow, I see possibility.” But perhaps the most powerful part of her story is not what she has achieved it is what she wants to build for others.

“My dream is to support at least 200 young women to become entrepreneurs like me. YEFFA was my stepping stone, I want to be that stepping stone for others.”

In a city where many are still searching for opportunity, Aslatu has become proof that it can be created. Not from abundance. But from seeing value where others see loss.

From Opportunity to Enterprise: Youth Driving Mozambique’s Poultry Revolution

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On 27 March 2026, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), AGRA Mozambique and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development convened the National Youth Poultry Webinar, bringing together 108 participants. Of these, 89 were young people, including 42 women and 47 men, all united by a shared ambition to explore poultry as a viable pathway into agribusiness.

More than a technical discussion, the webinar showed how Mozambique’s youth are reimagining agriculture not simply as farming, but as enterprise. While policymakers and industry experts unpacked market trends, production realities and growth opportunities, it was the stories of young entrepreneurs already building successful ventures that brought the conversation to life. Speakers acknowledged the structural challenges facing the sector, particularly the high cost of feed, which accounts for nearly 75% of production expenses because
of heavy reliance on imports. Rather than positioning this as a setback, the discussion framed it as one of the sector’s most promising openings.

With Mozambique’s poultry market valued at approximately USD 495 million annually, local feed production using maize and soybeans emerged as a high- potential entry point for youth-led enterprises. This creates opportunities not only for producers, but also for innovators across the wider value chain.

From Tete Province, Lúcia Nóriate shared her journey of starting with limited resources and steadily growing her business through persistence, discipline and reinvestment.

“You don’t need to start big. What matters is to start, learn and grow,” she said.

Her story resonated strongly with participants, reinforcing the idea that entrepreneurship often begins with courage, consistency and a willingness to learn.

In Inhambane Province, Manuel Justino Ernesto, who now manages a 5,000-bird enterprise, highlighted the role of operational discipline in scaling successfully.

“Success in poultry is not luck. It’s management, records and consistency.”

Together, their experiences illustrated a defining truth for the next generation of agripreneurs: resilience, technical knowledge and sound business practices are just as important as access to capital.

The webinar also highlighted the breadth of opportunities available to young people across the poultry ecosystem, from bird production and feed processing to hatchery services, value addition, logistics and digital solutions. The message was clear: the future lies not only in raising birds, but in building businesses that serve the entire system.

Momentum is already building. The Government announced plans to distribute 852 poultry kits alongside targeted training, while development partners continue to strengthen access to finance, technical skills and markets.

By the close of the session, one message stood above all others: start small, think big, invest in knowledge and build through collaboration.

 

Unlocking Opportunities: How Access to Improved Seeds and Fertilizers Empowered a Woman Farmer in Dera

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In the Huletu Wegedami Kebele of Ethiopia’s Amhara Region, 45-year-old Tensay Tsegeye is a testament to resilience. As a single mother of four, she has spent years balancing the demands of crop and livestock farming to support her family. While she is a pillar of her community today, her path was initially defined by hardships as she fought to provide for her family.

For years, Tensay navigated the complexities of financial constraints. While she owned 0.5 hectares of farmland, ownership did not equate to productivity. Lacking the capital for improved seeds, fertilizers, essential tools, or even oxen for plowing, she was often forced to rent her land to other farmers.

This arrangement left her with only a fraction of the harvest; a yield barely sufficient to sustain her children. Without a surplus to sell, meeting basic household needs and ensuring her children stayed in school was a constant struggle. Furthermore, Tensay faced a “credit ceiling” common to many women in her position; lenders often doubted her ability to repay, effectively locking her out of the formal financial system.

Tensay’s story shifted when AGRA, in partnership with the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), introduced an agricultural input credit initiative through an e-voucher system in Dera Woreda.

This program was designed to dismantle the specific barriers she faced by providing her with the credit necessary to purchase high-quality seeds, fertilizers, and other essential farming tools. Beyond providing physical supplies, the initiative equipped her with critical knowledge; Tensay worked closely with local agricultural experts to master modern techniques such as precise land preparation, optimized fertilizer application, and strategic crop management. Together, these resources and skills allowed her to transition from a struggling landholder to
a productive, independent farmer.

With the right resources and guidance, Tensay transitioned from renting out her land to cultivating it herself. Her maize yields increased significantly, providing a regular income for the first time.

To ensure this newfound growth was sustainable, Tensay participated in financial literacy training facilitated by Abay Bank and Tsedey Bank. She learned the fundamentals of saving, budgeting, and planning for seasonal farm expenses. This financial foundation allowed her to
diversify her livelihood. Following dairy farming training from World Vision Ethiopia, she purchased cows and began selling milk locally,creating a second, steady stream of revenue.

The impact of these interventions has moved beyond the farm gate. Through disciplined saving and reinvestment, Tensay has achieved milestones that once seemed out of reach. She purchased a plot of land in town and built a modest, secure home for her family, and she also supported her daughter in launching a small tea and coffee business to foster independence for the next generation.

Additionally, Tensay is now an active voice in household and community discussions, participating in local women’s activities with renewed confidence. Reflecting on her journey from a struggling landholder to a successful agribusiness owner, Tensay attributes her transformation to the combination of modern inputs and financial education.

Today, she lives by a simple, powerful mantra: “Someone who saves today will not worry about tomorrow”.

Turning Commitments into Results: The Political Economy of Africa’s Food Systems

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By Boaz Blackie Keizire

Last week, in the tea highlands of Limuru just outside Nairobi, I sat with Permanent Secretaries and senior officials from agriculture ministries across 15 African countries. Convened by AGRA, the retreat was not about drafting another strategy. It was about taking stock, honestly, of where Africa’s agricultural transformation stands nearly two decades into AGRA’s journey.

The timing could not have been more consequential. Global disruptions- from pandemics to geopolitical conflicts-have repeatedly exposed the fragility of food systems and the risks of overreliance on external supply chains. For Africa, these shocks have underscored a longstanding vulnerability: despite holding some of the world’s largest reserves of arable land, the continent still imports more than USD 70 billion worth of food each year. This is not merely a trade imbalance; it is a development failure that has left value chains underbuilt, jobs unrealised, and rural economies behind.

The stakes are rising quickly. Nearly 12 million young Africans enter the labour market annually, while only about three million formal jobs are created. This widening gap is both a political and economic fault line and an opportunity hiding in plain sight. By 2030, Africa’s agrifood system is projected to be worth USD 1 trillion. With the right choices, it could become the continent’s single largest engine for jobs, enterprise, and inclusive growth.

What emerged clearly from our discussions was not a lack of vision. Africa is rich in frameworks. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 charts an ambitious course toward shared prosperity, while the CAADP 2026–2035 Kampala Declaration provides a detailed roadmap for food systems transformation. What has been missing is execution. Political commitment has too often stopped at declarations. Investment has been episodic. Institutions have worked in silos. Accountability has been weak. Until political will translates into sustained financing, aligned institutions, and measurable delivery, even the best strategies will remain aspirational.

This is why the continent’s political calendar matters. As countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Mali approach election cycles between 2026 and 2027, a rare window has opened. Elections can be more than moments of transition; they can be turning points for national priorities. Agriculture must move from campaign rhetoric to funded, timebound commitments anchored in CAADP targets and credible national delivery plans.

Recent history offers stark reminders of the cost of delay. The COVID19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains. The Russia–Ukraine war sent shockwaves through food and fertiliser markets. Fresh disruptions linked to the Middle East are once again driving up costs. Africa imports nearly 90 percent of its fertiliser, leaving farmers acutely exposed to global price volatility, while rising fuel prices squeeze transport and agroprocessing costs. These repeated shocks raise a hard question: how many crises must pass before Africa decisively invests in its own food sovereignty?

It was in this context that the idea of an Africa Food Corridor, explored extensively during the retreat, resonated deeply. By strengthening regional trade, improving logistics, and lowering barriers to crossborder movement of food, Africa can better connect surplusproducing regions to deficit markets, reduce costs, and build resilience. Renewed investments in ports and transport corridors-though often driven by access to minerals-are beginning to unlock these possibilities. The challenge now is alignment: ensuring that infrastructure serves agricultural transformation rather than bypassing it.

None of this will succeed without a new compact between governments and the private sector. As the East African Grain Council underscored, trust is the currency of investment. Where governments provide predictable policies and credible enforcement, private capital follows. Where mistrust prevails, even welldesigned reforms stall.

Data and evidence must underpin this next phase. Effective delivery depends on knowing who farmers are, where they are, and what they need. Digital platforms and farmer registries are already changing this equation. Kenya’s Integrated Agriculture Management Information System (KIAMIS), adapted from Zambia’s ZIAMIS, has registered millions of farmers and is enabling more targeted delivery of inputs, subsidies, and extension services. Its real value lies not just in efficiency, but in enabling realtime, evidence based decisionmaking across the sector.

Inclusion remains the final test. Women, who make up close to half of Africa’s agricultural workforce, continue to face systematic barriers to land, finance, and services that suppress productivity. Closing this gap is not charity; it is one of the fastest and most costeffective ways to raise yields, incomes, and food security. At the same time, Africa’s youth must see agriculture not as a fallback, but as a frontier of opportunity. Digital tools, logistics platforms, and agritech innovations are opening new entry points as entrepreneurs and service providers across the value chain.

As AGRA marks 20 years, there is broad recognition that Africa has made real progress. But the next chapter will demand a different discipline-one that prizes delivery over declarations, coordination over fragmentation, and results over rhetoric. The convergence of political transitions, global disruptions, and emerging infrastructure presents a rare moment. Africa can continue to absorb external shocks and  deepen its dependence on imports, or it can choose to build resilient, integrated food systems that anchor prosperity at home.

When farmers prosper, Africa prospers. The task ahead is clear: to move from promise to performance, from frameworks to function, and to make agriculture not just a sector of potential, but the true backbone of Africa’s economy.

Boaz B. Keizire is the Director of Policy & State Capability at AGRA and a 2017 Fellow for the Aspen New Voices Fellowship

Soil Is Africa’s Hidden Growth Asset

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Why the next wave of competitive advantage in African markets will be built from the ground up. Agriculture begins with soil, but for Africa’s growth story, soil is far more than an input. It is the foundation of food systems, the basis of livelihoods, and an increasingly critical lever for resilience, reliability, and longterm value creation. Across the continent, soil holds the potential to address food insecurity, restore ecosystems, and unlock economic growth at scale. Yet that potential remains largely unrealised, not because of lack of effort, but because the core asset underpinning agricultural systems has been systematically undervalued.

Consider a typical smallholder farmer managing at least three acres of land. Each season, she commits her primary productive assets, land, labour, and inputs into the business of farming. She prepares the land, purchases seed and fertiliser, plants, weeds, and manages crops through increasingly volatile weather patterns. The investment of time, effort, and capital is substantial and sustained.

Too often, however, the system fails to break even. Once input costs, labour, climate risk, price volatility, and postharvest losses are factored in, farming frequently struggles to generate sufficient surplus to reinvest. Productivity remains stagnant, vulnerability persists, and each season begins from a position of fragility.

In any other sector, this would signal a structural problem. Capital does not flow to businesses where the core asset is degrading, efficiency is declining, and returns fail to justify risk. Manufacturing systems are redesigned when productivity falls; retail models are restructured when margins erode. Yet in agriculture, this dynamic has been normalised.

The constraint is not farmer effort. It is that soil, the primary productive asset is rarely managed as one.

For decades, soil has been treated as a passive medium rather than as capital. Uniform input approaches have been applied across highly variable and often degraded landscapes, leading to diminishing returns over time. Nutrients are added, but crops respond weakly because the biological and physical systems that make soil productive have been compromised.

The result is a cycle of continued investment with limited payoff. This is where the concept of a tipping point matters.

Agricultural systems do not improve incrementally. They operate around a threshold that determines whether farming functions as a survival activity or as a viable enterprise. Below this threshold, productivity remains low, soil health declines, and income barely covers costs. Any external shock, whether climatic or marketrelated, pushes the system deeper into risk.

Beyond it, the system behaves differently. When soil health improves to the point where nutrients are efficiently utilised, water is retained, and biological processes support plant growth, productivity stabilises and begins to rise. At that point, farming crosses a breakeven threshold. Surplus becomes possible. Reinvestment becomes rational. Agriculture shifts from coping to competing. This transition is not about marginal gains. It is structural.

Crossing the tipping point requires deliberate soil management: rebuilding organic matter, restoring biological activity, and applying inputs in a targeted way aligned with actual soil needs. Water management, crop selection, and agronomic practices must also reflect local conditions rather than onesizefitsall models.

When these elements align, the economics change measurably. Crops access nutrients more effectively, soils retain moisture longer, and systems become less sensitive to seasonal variability. Evidence from integrated soil and landscape restoration across Africa shows sustained productivity gains alongside reduced degradation, demonstrating that this shift is both possible and scalable. Crucially, these gains compound over time.

Once farms consistently operate beyond the breakeven point, behaviour changes. Reinvestment in better technologies becomes the norm. Diversification into highervalue production becomes feasible. Soil organic carbon accumulates, creating optionality around emerging climate and sustainability markets. Improved water retention reduces dependence on rainfall alone.

At this stage, farms are no longer just producing crops. They are building assets.

For businesses operating in African markets, the implications are significant. Brand equity is often understood as trust, credibility, and relevance built over time. In food and agriculture systems, that equity is not only intangible, but also physical, embedded in the soil. Soil health determines whether farmers can produce reliably, whether supply chains hold under pressure, and whether shocks can be absorbed without disruption.

When farming systems remain below the tipping point, supply chains are unstable, costs are unpredictable, and trust is fragile. When systems move beyond it, reliability improves, resilience strengthens, and longterm partnerships become viable. Soil, in this context, is not simply an environmental concern. It is a strategic asset.

Investing in soil is therefore not a peripheral ESG activity. It is a systemlevel intervention that strengthens productivity, stabilises supply, mitigates climate risk, and underpins durable growth. For companies seeking longterm advantage in African markets, soil sits at the centre of value creation.

Africa’s growth will ultimately depend on whether its foundational systems can generate surplus rather than absorb effort. The brands that recognise this and invest accordingly, will be those best positioned for the next decade of growth, built from the ground up.

By Aggie Konde, the Chief of Brand, Communication & Advocacy at AGRA.

My daughter doesn’t know she’s my theory of change

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By Stevelee Mwichigi, Womens Empowerment and Advocacy Coordinator at AGRA

A letter to my brothers.

There is a particular look I get when I tell other men what I do for a living. It’s not hostility entirely, something closer to mild confusion edged with pity. Wait, what did you say? That’s your thing? Women’s stuff? Nobody says it out loud, but they don’t need to.

There is a cost to being a man in this space that doesn’t show up in any program budget. The jokes that are mostly jokes. The quiet and persistent suggestion that caring this much about women’s economic power is somehow, off. Less serious than the real work in policy, seed systems, sustainable land management. I have sat with that suggestion more times than I can count since getting into this advocacy.

And there are harder moments than the jokes. Moments where I am in a room of men, even my own colleagues, and I am making the case (probably for the millionth time) for why women’s transformation has to sit at the center of this work and not get buried somewhere in Annex 69. And I feel a cooling and undeniable shift in the room. The sense that I have said something that places me on the wrong side of an invisible line. That when a man argues this hard for women, other men read it as a kind of defection and others even yet, a suspicion that would place me on the accusing side of the African culture. Oh boy have I felt that, I won’t pretend I haven’t.

But then I go home.

To a daughter who is figuring out what the world thinks of her and what it is actually willing to offer her. Those are not the same thing (at least not yet). And something about quietly watching that process daily makes the discomfort in those rooms feel like a very small price.

I am a father, a husband, a brother. The women in my life are not my motivation in some abstract, poster-quote sense. They are the reason this stopped being just a job some time ago. When I am sitting in a meeting arguing about whether a program is genuinely transformative or just gender-responsive enough to tick a box, I am thinking about my daughter. I am thinking about whether the world she walks into will make her prove herself before it takes her seriously. Whether her ambition will be called impressive but not quite fundable, and whether the ceiling will just be higher, or actually gone.

And you know what, I am not willing to shrug at that.

And that is where I keep arriving, no matter how many programs I support to design or reviews I sit through, what would happen if more men refused to shrug? And listen, not just men who work in this space, but literally any man. What if the minister who signs off on the agricultural budget, the banker who approves the lending product, the donor who greenlights the program, the cooperative chairman, the husband, the father, what if each of them decided that unless an initiative puts women’s transformation at its center, not a token inclusion, not responsiveness, not a gender paragraph on page 47 – he simply will not put his name to it. Will not champion it or bother showing up for it. Not as a favour but as a line he has made a commitment never to cross.

The agrifood sector has spent years trying to bring men along. Campaigns, coalitions, male champion frameworks, and, quite honestly, in some shape or form, I have been part of one or two of them. Please don’t get me wrong, they do matter. But there is a difference between a man who has been persuaded and a man who has decided.

Persuasion is fragile and bends under pressure, or under peer eyes or under the next room full of men giving you that look. Conviction is something else. It is the thing that makes you stay in the argument even when it costs you something.

I can’t make that choice for anyone else. I can only say it is the choice I keep making, yet not without the occasional moment of wondering if it is worth it. But every time I see my baby Lael’s face light up when I walk into the room, I have this undeniable conviction that I can’t fail her. Bro, she’s only eight years old, so she doesn’t know yet that she’s the reason.

This International Women’s Month, that is the only thing I want to put on the table. A standard for my sons and for you, my brother and an honest invitation to hold it with me.

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How Marcelina Lubuva Scaled an Agri-Enterprise Beyond Borders

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In Lubungo village in Mvomero District, agriculture has long been shaped by both promise and challenges. Fertile soils support crop production, but poor road infrastructure – especially during the rainy season – makes it difficult for farmers to access markets and maximise returns.

Within this environment, Marcelina Lubuva, a 30-year-old agripreneur and owner of Azimio Farm, is demonstrating what becomes possible when determination is matched with the right support.

Today, her farm spans 10 acres, supplies produce beyond Tanzania’s borders and creates employment opportunities in her community. Yet her journey began with uncertainty and limited knowledge of how to turn farming into a viable business.

“I was farming, but I did not fully understand what I was doing. I did not know the right practices, and I was unsure whether agriculture could truly change my life,” she recalls.

Like many young farmers, Marcelina faced barriers that are often unseen. Successful farming requires technical knowledge, financial planning, and alignment with market demand. Without these foundations, productivity gains remain limited and income unpredictable.

Access to finance further constrained her growth. Without a structured business model or proven production record, formal financial institutions remained out of reach, reinforcing the perception of agriculture as a high-risk livelihood.

This began to change when Marcelina joined the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme. Through training and mentorship provided by implementing partners, she gained practical skills in modern farming practices and began to approach agriculture as a strategic enterprise.

“With YEFFA, I started to understand that farming is not about guessing. It is about knowledge, planning, and doing things the right way,” she explains.

Through programme linkages, Marcelina connected with financial institutions such as CRDB Bank and Equity Bank, enabling her to access capital to expand her operations. Improved market connections also helped her transition from localised sales to more consistent and larger-scale production planning.

Exposure visits to countries including South Africa and Germany further broadened her perspective, showing how agriculture can be professionally managed and scaled. As her confidence grew, so did her ambitions. She expanded her farm from four to ten acres and diversified production from green bell peppers to include tomatoes, hot peppers, bitter tomatoes and sweet melon, reducing risk while responding to market opportunities.

Today, Azimio Farm employs four permanent workers and twelve casual labourers, contributing directly to livelihoods in the local community. During peak seasons, Marcelina can harvest up to 80 bags of green peppers in a single week, with each bag selling for approximately 80,000 Tanzanian shillings. These gains reflect improved productivity driven by better agronomic knowledge and stronger business planning.

A major milestone came when she secured an international buyer for her sweet melon through support linked to YEFFA implementing partner SUGECO. Accessing export markets marked a significant shift for a farmer who once questioned whether agriculture could sustain her even locally.

Income generated from farming has enabled Marcelina to diversify her investments, including opening a hardware business and acquiring additional land. These steps are strengthening her long-term financial stability and positioning her as a growing rural entrepreneur.

Despite this progress, systemic challenges remain. Poor rural infrastructure continues to affect transport efficiency and profitability, particularly during the rainy season. “These are real challenges we face daily. But agriculture is something you commit to, learn from, and grow with,” she says.

A Story of Youth Potential in Africa’s Food Systems

Marcelina’s journey illustrates the impact of targeted youth support in agriculture. With the right combination of technical training, financial inclusion and market linkages, young agripreneurs can build sustainable enterprises that generate employment, income and stronger food systems.

Her story reflects a broader shift across Africa’s agrifood sector – where agriculture is increasingly becoming a pathway to entrepreneurship, innovation, and inclusive economic growth. In Lubungo, through Marcelina’s vision and persistence, that future is already taking shape.

 

Noela Victoria Ojara: Advancing Inclusive Food Systems Transformation in Uganda

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In Northern Uganda, Noela Victoria Ojara is helping shift how cassava and sweet potato, traditionally viewed as household food security crops, are positioned within markets and local food systems. Drawing from her early experiences farming with her grandmother, Noela recognised the untapped potential of women farmers as entrepreneurs and innovators capable of driving both economic growth and improved nutrition outcomes.

As the Founder and Managing Director of Divine Organic Foods, she has built an enterprise that strengthens root and tuber value chains while creating opportunities for women and youth, who make up 70% of participants in her initiatives.

Working across the Lango and Teso sub-regions, Noela mobilised women’s groups to engage in quality seed production, processing and marketing. This has opened new income streams, improved household nutrition and expanded women’s participation beyond primary production into higher-value market activities. Her work contributes to changing perceptions about women’s roles in agriculture and demonstrates the wider community benefits of inclusive value chain development.

In 2022, Noela was selected among 20 beneficiaries across Africa under the Value4Her programme. Through this support, she advanced a circular economy model within the sweet potato value chain in Lango, promoting zero waste through processing innovations and stronger linkages between farmers and market vendors. These efforts have supported increased consumption of nutrient-dense foods to help address iron and zinc deficiencies among women of reproductive age.

A strong advocate for gender-responsive agricultural reform, Noela continues to champion improved access to finance, training and markets for women agripreneurs. Her leadership has earned continental recognition, including being named a 2025 AWARD Gender Agrifood Systems Policy Fellow, a top five GAIN global nutrition entrepreneur and one of Africa’s Top 100 Women Agribusiness Leaders.

She was also recognised as runner-up for the GIZ 2024 African Woman of the Year award and as an African Women in Food Systems Ecosystem Enabler.

Alongside her advocacy work, Noela is pursuing a PhD in Agricultural Systems while advancing nutrition-sensitive innovations such as gluten-free cassava flour and the promotion of nutrient-dense crops including sweet potato, iron beans and indigenous leafy greens. Through climate-smart practices that convert processing waste into animal feed and organic fertiliser, she is supporting income diversification and building resilience to climate shocks.

Since 2017, Noela has reached more than 85,000 farmers across the Acholi, Lango, Teso, Sebei and West Nile regions through the supply of certified seed and agricultural inputs. She has mentored over 220 women to transition from informal trading into more structured enterprises that increase household incomes.

Today, her enterprise engages 2,500 smallholder farmers in northern Uganda who supply fresh and dried produce, while sourcing 70% of raw materials locally. Divine Organic Foods employs over 70 staff, 65% of them women, contributing to improved livelihoods, education outcomes and household nutrition.

For farmer group leader Lilly Agol in Kwania-Lango, this support has translated into practical change. Since 2022, her group has gained access to clean planting materials, reliable markets for cassava roots and high-iron beans, and exposure to improved production practices from Kenya and Rwanda. Their seed gardens have also undergone inspection for national vegetative seed certification by Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture — a key milestone towards sustainability and formal market participation.

By strengthening women-led enterprises and inclusive value chains, Noela’s work illustrates how targeted support can accelerate progress towards resilient, nutrition-sensitive and market-oriented food systems across Uganda.

Strengthening Tanzania’s Soybean Value Chain – Songea Mission

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From 2–5 March 2026, stakeholders from government, development partners, private sector institutions, and farmer organizations convened in Songea, Ruvuma Region, Tanzania, to review progress and opportunities in soybean production and value chain development.

The mission brought together representatives including Mr. Odd Arnesen from the NorwegianEmbassy, Mr. Yohane Kaduma from Private  Agricultural Sector Support Trust (PASS Trust), Mr. Francis Ndumbaro from the Agriculture Transformation Office (ATO), Mr. Abdallah Msambachi from Agricultural Growth Corridors of Tanzania Centre Limited (AGCOT Centre Ltd), Deo from the Ruvuma Regional Secretariat, alongside partners from Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MCODE), Cereals and Other Produce Regulatory Authority (COPRA), and other key stakeholders supporting soybean development.

Discussions highlighted the growing potential of soybeans as a strategic crop for improving farmer incomes, strengthening the supply of quality livestock feed, and supporting agro- industrial development in Tanzania. Participants emphasized the need to expand access to improved seeds, strengthen extension services, improve aggregation systems, and enhance market linkages for smallholder farmers.

The engagement also reinforced the role of soybean development in advancing Flagship 8 of the Agriculture Master Plan (AMP) 2050, which focuses on strengthening strategic commodity value chains and agro-industrialization to drive productivity, value addition, and private sector
investment in Tanzania’s agriculture sector.

Strengthening the soybean value chain will therefore contribute directly to the broader objectives of AMP 2050, including agricultural commercialization, resilient food systems, and inclusive rural economic growth.

Team visited the Office of the Songea Regional Comissioner for familiarization
The Group-Songea Crop Development Project
Team discussions with farmers.
Soybean crop development project.
The Team having discussions with farmers in Songea.
Soyabean Demonstration Plot at Likonde Village, Nantumbo District – Songea

 

From Avoiding Agriculture to Shaping Its Future Through Smart Greenhouses – Bisenge Mico Mariette

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She grew up surrounded by rice fields yet dreamed of becoming anything but a farmer. But life had other plans. Today, Bisenge Mico Mariette once determined to avoid agriculture at all costs is quietly becoming one of Rwanda’s most promising innovators in smart greenhouse farming, turning hesitation into purpose and scarcity into opportunity.

When Mariette looks back at her childhood in the hills of Western Province, Risizi District, Muganza Sector, she smiles at the unexpected twist. She grew up surrounded by rice fields yet agriculture was the last thing she ever imagined calling a career.

“I had never imagined agriculture to be my profession. It was not appealing. It wasn’t aesthetic,”
she said.

As a young girl, Mariette pictured herself wearing a white doctor’s coat, becoming an engineer, or standing in a courtroom as a lawyer. That future felt cleaner, more modern far from the mud-stained image of farming she grew up knowing.

Determined never to cross paths with agriculture, she deliberately chose to study Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry (MPC) in high school.

“In mathematics we used to say parallel lines never meet. That was my plan to never cross paths with agriculture,”
she says.

She carried this mindset into university, pursuing Energy Engineering at the University of Rwanda. By her second year, she was already an entrepreneur dabbling in fashion, construction, and recycling. Agriculture was still far from the picture.

But while searching for new business opportunities, she stumbled upon a gap in agriculture one technology could fill.

Mariette began building an agri-tech system designed to monitor and control environmental conditions in greenhouses and open fields supporting precision and climate-resilient agriculture. The idea was strong, but It exposed a reality she had been avoiding

“I realized I couldn’t do that without being a farmer. I had to experience what farmers face every day to solve their problems.”

It was an unexpected turn. She wasn’t proud at first. She felt insecure, unsure of how to explain to people why she had become “an agriculture person.”“I always felt like I owed people an explanation. I wasn’t convinced myself… but I had trust that the path would make sense someday.” She said.

Her greatest barrier was capital. She had no job and the only income she had was a 40,000 Rwf monthly university allowance.“That money wasn’t even enough. But I still believed something would work.” She said.

Her breakthrough came when she applied for the Imali Agribusiness program by the Imbuto Foundation and won 10 million Rwf to begin her project.

But even that, she says, “wasn’t enough” for what she needed to deliver. She continued seeking support, including through BDF, while also acknowledging her second biggest weakness was lack of agricultural skills.

Through Rwanda Extension Agriculture programs and partners like AGRA, FAO, and Mastercard Foundation, she gained technical skills, exposure, and most importantly, access to markets.

She highlights one experience with particular gratitude: “At the AgriShow in Mulindi, they paid for everything our stand, transport, food, accommodation. That changed everything for me.”

Mariette eventually launched Smart Greenhouse, a company combining greenhouse farming and precision agriculture technologies. Her innovations monitor and regulate conditions that influence crop growth directly supporting Rwanda’s 2030 goal of increasing agricultural productivity by 25%.

Today, Smart Greenhouse operates in Gicumbi, Rwamagana, and Bugesera, serving both local and international markets.

The company currently employs 6 permanent employees and 30 temporary worker’s daily. Mariette says agriculture taught her that transparency inspires others.“We were taught not to talk about money. But I want youth to know there are opportunities.”

Revenues vary by season tomatoes take four months, sweet pepper 6–8 months, habanero a year, strawberries 8–12 months. But across all three greenhouses. Smart Greenhouse earns between 28–30 million Rwf gross per season, after covering salaries, taxes, and costs.

Her journey mirrors the barriers many young people encounter capital market access and skills and technical capacity. Yet she insists these problems should not discourage anyone.

“Dear fellow youth, agriculture needs you. We eat every day. The population is increasing while the land is decreasing. Agriculture needs creative, innovative youth more than any industry will ever need you.” She said.

Mariette urges partners to support farmers in accessing premium markets: “Middlemen take our produce for very low prices, then sell it high because they access bigger markets. We take all the risk yet earn the least.”She hopes for collaborations that expand market access both locally and abroad.

Her dream is bold, clear and rooted in the future of controlled-environment agriculture: “In five years, I will be a big greenhouse farmer. Saying my name Mariette will mean greenhouse farmer. You won’t separate the two.”

Mariette’s journey reflects a larger shift in Rwanda’s agriculture at a time when the country must create over 850,000 agri-food jobs by 2030 and still loses up to 40% of horticultural produce due to limited market access. With only 2% of Rwanda’s farmland irrigated and more than 70% of citizens relying on agriculture for their livelihoods, her smart greenhouse model shows how technology can boost productivity and resilience.

By earning 28–30 million Rwf per season from just three greenhouses, she demonstrates the untapped potential of youth-led agribusiness and directly contributes to Rwanda’s national goal of increasing agricultural productivity by 25% by 2030 proving that innovation, not land size, will define the future of farming.