The African agricultural landscape is changing rapidly. While the proportion of women in agriculture research is quite low, with only 1 out of 4 agricultural researchers and 1 out of 7 agriculture research leaders being women, there are women playing an influential role in shaping the growth of African agriculture. Below is my list of 10.
H.E Rhoda Peace Tumusiime
HE Rhoda Peace Tumusiime is the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union. She has championed causes such as women empowerment, poverty eradication, agricultural development, strategic planning and partnership building, among others. Her portfolio as AU Commissioner covers multiple sectors ranging from crop agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, land, water, environment, climate change, climate services, and disaster risk reduction to rural development. She has mobilized and closely worked with other pan-African institutions and development partner agencies in all those areas to secure and provide support to AU Member States. Her efforts have yielded increased responses in the framework of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Programme. HE Tumusiime holds a Bachelor’s in Agricultural Economics; Master’s in Economics, Planning and Managing Rural Dev.; and Diploma in Women and Dev. Previously she held senior positions in the Government Uganda, including as Commissioner for Agriculture Planning and Commissioner for Women and Development. Her expertise and experience as well as commitment have won her a number of key positions on regional and international organisations, such as membership of the High-level Advisory Panel of UNISDR, Advisory Board of Expo 2015 dedicated to the Theme: Feeding the Planet, Energy For Life, Governing Board of the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), Chair of the Governing Council of the African Fertiliser Financing Mechanism (AFFM), Chair of the ALive Platform for livestock development in Africa, member of the Global Panel on Nutrition, among others.
Dr Agnes M. Kalibata
Dr Agnes Kailibata is the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. As president of AGRA, Dr Kalibata oversees programs in in 17 African countries including Kenya, Ghana, Mali, Mozambiq ue, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso. Before joining AGRA, Dr Kalibata was Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), where she was widely considered to be one of the most successful agriculture ministers in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to this, she was the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources. She also served as a scientist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). She holds a Ph.D. in plant, soils, and insect science from University of Massachusetts Amherst, an M.S. in agriculture and forestry from Makerere University, and a B.S. in applied entomology and biochemistry from Makerere University.
Mme Elisabeth Atangana
Elisabeth Atangana is a farmer by profession. In 1980 she established the Association of Women for Sustainable Development “Entre Nous” in the town of Esse; established the Chain of Solidarity and Support of Actions for Sustainable Development (CHASAADD-M) in 1991, the organization of integrated local development and vocational training center for farmers; and the creation of the Common Fund to Support Grassroots Organizations (FOCAOB), a specialized tool in rural finance created and managed by farmers themselves. Since 1998, she has been involved in the establishment of the National Peasant Movement through the National Coordination of Peasant Organizations of Cameroon (CNOP-CAM) and in the process of creating the PROPAC (Sub-regional Platform of Peasant Organizations of Central Africa) in 2005, of which she has been the president until today. Between October 2010 and September 2012, she acted as the first President of the Platform of the Pan-African Farmers Organization (PAFO) and on 29 May 2012, she was appointed as Special Ambassador for Cooperatives by FAO. She has made it a priority to take into account the specificity of women and rural youth in policies and strategies for sustainable development, as well as to work to develop vocational training and employment for young farmers and rural people.
Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg
Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg is the Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD). AWARD is career-development program for women in agricultural research and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining AWARD, she founded and served as Executive Director of Akili Dada, an award-winning leadership incubator that invests in high-achieving young women from under-resourced families, who are passionate about driving change in their communities. Kamau-Rutenberg also served as an Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and a lecturer in International Relations at the Jesuit Hekima College, a constituent college of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. Her academic research and teaching interests centered on African politics, as well as the politics of philanthropy, gender, international relations, ethnicity, and democratization, and the role of technology in social activism. She has received widespread recognition for her work investing in women, including being honored as a 2012 White House Champion of Change, named one of the 100 Most Influential Africans by New African magazine, recognized as a 2012 Ford Foundation Champion of Democracy, awarded the 2011 Yamashita Prize, and the 2010 United Nations Intercultural Innovation Award, among others. An energetic activist, Kamau-Rutenberg serves as on the Boards of the African Democratic Institute and of Opportunity Collaboration, in addition to being a juror for the prestigious Intercultural Innovation Award, offered by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and the BMW Group. She is also a strong advocate and passionate public speaker about the need to transform some philanthropic practices in Africa and what it means to build a life in service of driving social change. Born in Kenya, Kamau-Rutenberg holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Minnesota, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics from Whitman College in Washington, U.S.A.
Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda
Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda has been the chief executive officer and head of mission of the Africa-wide Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) since 2004. Dr Sibanda led the development of the strategy and business plans that FANRPAN is currently implementing (2007-2015). She is currently coordinating policy research and advocacy programs within the African continent, all aimed at making Africa a food-secure region. Her portfolio includes policy research and advocacy programmes on food policies, agricultural productivity and markets, rural livelihoods and climate change. Dr Sibanda is an animal scientist by training and a practicing commercial beef cattle farmer and has been on the forefront of the agriculture, food security and climate change global policy agenda. In 2012, Dr Sibanda was appointed Board Chair of the world’s leading livestock organisation, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). In 2011, Dr Sibanda was nominated to serve on the independent science panel of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research of the Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security Programme (CCAFS), aimed at driving new research on the interactions between climate change, agriculture, natural resource management and food security, and to create unique possibilities in the search for cutting-edge solutions to climate change and food-security problems. In August 2010 she was co-opted into the Guardian Global Development advisory panel as one of the world’s most influential thinkers and provocative new voices. In 2009 she led the No Agriculture, No Deal global campaign and mobilised African civil society organisations to push for the inclusion of agriculture in the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) Copenhagen negotiations. Since 2008 Dr Sibanda has been a leading advocate for the Farming First global campaign – advocating for a holistic approach to sustainable agricultural development. Dr Sibanda holds a BSc degree from the University of Alexandria in Egypt, and an MSc and PhD from the University of Reading in the UK.
Dr Segenet Kelemu
Dr Segenet Kelemu is the Director General of the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Nairobi, Kenya, and the first woman to lead icipe. Dr Kelemu is a molecular plant pathologist with emphasis on elucidation of molecular determinants of host-pathogen interactions, development of novel plant disease control strategies including genetic engineering, biopesticides, pathogen population genetics and dynamics and endophytic microbes and their role in plant development. Prior to joining icipe, she was Vice President for Programs at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In 2007, she became the Director of the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) Hub at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya. Under her leadership, the BecA initiative grew from a contentious idea into a driving force that is changing the face of African biosciences. BecA’s research capacity, staff, facilities, funding, partners and training programs have expanded at an ever-accelerating pace. She assembled and inspired a scientific and technical team bound by a common passion for using science to enhance Africa’s biosciences development. She has also worked at Cornell University in the USA, and at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as a Senior Scientist and Leader of Crop and Agroecosystem Health Management. Dr Kelemu was featured in the top 100 most influential African women of 2014 in Forbes Africa and has been celebrated with numerous awards. In 2014 she was named the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Laureate for Africa, one of five Laureates chosen from around the world for their leadership and scientific excellence. The People’s Republic of China awarded her their prestigious Friendship Award, granted to foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China’s economic and social development. She has been elected a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, and was awarded The World Academy of Sciences 2011 TWAS Prize for Agricultural Sciences jointly with Prof Zia Khan – the first African to win this prize since its inception.
Prof Ruth Oniang’o
Professor Ruth Oniang’o currently serves as Professor of Nutrition at the Great Lakes University of Kisumu. She is founder and editor-in-chief of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development and founder and leader of the Rural Outreach Program, a Kenya based NGO working with farmer associations. She has taught at the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She is also Adjunct Professor at Tufts University in the USA. As a member of Kenya’s Parliament (2003-2007), she worked to alleviate poverty and hunger, with special focus on science and technology, agricultural research and productivity, food security, nutrition, bio-safety legislation, use of fertilizer and other inputs, HIV/AIDS and gender issues. She also served as Shadow Minister for Education for 5 years, while in parliament and advocated for reforms in the education sector. Currently working as a strong advocate of resource mobilization towards food and nutrition policies and attendant programs, and emphasizes the need to practice good governance and political will to address hunger and child malnutrition in Africa. Prof Oniang’o has served on several boards including the board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Agriculture Strategy Advisory Committee, International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Sasakawa Africa Association, and the Australian Centre for International Agriculture research. Prof Oniang’o holds a PhD in Food Science and Nutrition.
Ms Lucy Muchoki
Ms Lucy Muchoki is Chief Executive Officer of the Pan African Agribusiness and Agroindustry Consortium (PanAAC), a Regional Agribusiness platform that is mobilising and supporting the domestic private sector in Africa. She is also the coordinator of the Kenyan Agribusiness and Agroindustry Alliance (KAAA). Ms Muchoki, an accomplished Kenyan entrepreneur, has a major interest in the tea and horticultural industry. She is the Vice Chair of the CAADP Non-State Actors Regional Taskforce and has been instrumental in developing the Agribusiness strategy for Africa through collaboration with the African Union Commission and the Nepad Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA). She is a member of several advisory councils, such as those in Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI), an international food industry network that supports sustainable agriculture, in the ‘Scale up programme’ funded by the Dutch Government, a programme that supports small holder farmers and in the UNDP report on inclusive business models guiding council. She is also the private sector representative and steering committee member of Paepard, African Europe partnership programme on research for development and Global Form for Agricultural Research (GFAR). She is member of the steering committees of the AUC for an initiative on Aflatoxin control programme for Africa (PACA), rural infrastructure/market access programme and Ecological Organic Initiative. Ms Muchoki holds a BA in sociology from the University of Nairobi and a Master’s degree in Marketing and Business administration. She is the private sector representative at the board of FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa), ASARECA (Association for Strengthening Agriculture and Research in Eastern and Central Africa) And Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR).
Dr Eleni Z Gabre-Madhin
Dr. Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin, is the Chief Executive Officer of Eleni LLC. She was the Founder and first Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange from 2008. Dr Gabre-Madhin is an internationally recognized thought leader on agricultural marketing in Africa and global development, with a career spanning both research and development practice, and now business. Prior to returning to her native Ethiopia, she served as Senior Economist at the World Bank and Senior Research Fellow with the Washington-based think tank, the International Food Policy Research Institute. She has also worked at the United Nations as a Commodity Trading Expert, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Gabre-Madhin holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, an MSc in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and BA in Economics from Cornell University. She was awarded Outstanding Dissertation by the American Agricultural Economics Association in 1999 for her thesis titled, “Social Capital, Transaction Costs, and Market Institutions in the Ethiopian Grain Market.” As a voice for African markets, she represented the African business community at the G-20 Business Summit in London in 2009, and is presently on the Nike Foundation-sponsored Advisory Panel on Girls in Rural Economies, as well as the Expert Group on Development Issues for the Government of Sweden, the African Union Task Force on Commodities, and the Stiglitz Task Force on Africa. Dr. Gabre-Madhin is a Founding Fellow and Board Member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, and was nominated in 2010 for Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year by African Business Awards. Eleni was selected as “Ethiopian Person of the Year” for the 2002 Ethiopian calendar year (2009/2010 Gregorian) by the Ethiopian newspaper Jimma Times. Dr. Gabre-Madhin was among The Africa Report’s “50 Women Shaping Africa” 2011, was named Ethiopian Person of the Year 2010 and was nominated for Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year 2010 by African Business. She received the African Banker Icon Award for 2012 and the Yara Prize 2012.
Dr. Susan Kawira Kaaria
Dr. Susan Kaaria is a Senior Gender Officer, in the Division of Social Protection, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She currently leads the Gender Work under FAO’s Strategic Objective on Reducing Rural Poverty with the overall goal of promoting rural women’s social and economic empowerment by helping to reduce rural gender inequalities and increasing access to rural organizations, productive resources and services, decent employment and social protection. Prior to joining FAO, Dr. Kaaria was a Program Officer Financial Assets in the Ford Foundation Office for Eastern Africa programming in the area of Expanding Livelihood Opportunities for Poor Households in East Africa. At Ford Foundation, she supported a program to increase incomes and assets of poor rural women and men by supporting a range of interventions, including: strengthening producers’ organizations and farmers groups; analysis to develop policy recommendations on integrating women and poor smallholders into value chains; designing and piloting new agricultural loan products; and approaches for improving access of poor smallholder producers to markets. Dr. Kaaria has worked as a Senior Scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) working in both Latin America and Eastern and Southern Africa. At CIAT, she played an important role in the development of a participatory program for catalyzing rural development, entitled “Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI)”, an inter-disciplinary collaborative program that was implemented Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and DR Congo. ERI catalyzed rural innovation processes by increasing access and benefits from technology innovation and market opportunities, by poor communities. Dr. Kaaria holds a BSc in Agriculture from University of Eastern Africa – Kenya, an MSc in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State University, USA and a PhD in Natural Resource Economics from University of Minnesota, USA. She has a strong commitment to promoting gender equality and is a keen advocate for innovation and development processes that are led by local resource users. She has also published widely on these subjects and is co-editor of Innovation Africa: Enriching Farmers’ Livelihoods.
Who would you add to this list of African women, working to advance African agriculture?
Jemimah Njuki, Editor in Chief, Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security
Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security 
Great initiative to recognize and reward African women in different sectors who have made significant contributions on gender in agriculture. To grow the list I nominate
1. Fina Opio, Executive Director of ASARECA
2. Josephine Okoth, CEO of Victoria seed and winner of Yara Prize, member of several boards
3. Florence Wambugu, CEO of Africa Harvest and Winner of Yara Prize
4. Regina Kapinga for her work on root crops (sweet potatoes and yam in West Africa), formerly with BMGF and now Head of Policy advocacy
A suggestion:
1.Consider a long list of 20 African women and put the list for voting and then announce and reward the top 10.
2. The top 2 could be announced in public forum at the African Union Agriculture and Food Security Day (30 October) , or at the AGRF or at the Global Women in Agriculture Conference…
Reblogged this on Food Waste: from field to fork and commented:
Aggregate data shows that women comprise about 43 percent of the agricultural labour force globally and in developing countries.
Women make essential contributions to the agricultural and rural economies in all developing countries. Their roles vary considerably between and within regions and are changing rapidly in many parts of the world, where economic and social forces are transforming the
agricultural sector. Rural women often manage complex households and pursue multiple livelihood strategies. Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural
enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes. Many of these activities are not defined as “economically active employment” in national accounts but they are essential to the well-
being of rural households.
Women make up almost 50 percent of the agricultural labour force in sub-Saharan Africa, an increase from about 45 percent in 1980. The averages in Africa range from just over 40 percent in Southern Africa to just over 50 percent in Eastern Africa. These sub-regional
averages have remained fairly stable since 1980, with the exception of Northern Africa, where the female share appears to have risen from 30 percent to almost 45 percent. The sub-regional data for Africa conceal wide differences between countries both in the share of female labour in agriculture and the trend.
Let us celebrate all the women and men who contribute to building and strengthening our food systems around the world…
To expand the list, the unsung women in rural Africa whose role in agriculture and food production ensures their families are fed and well taken care of…
And to the young women out there working in the agriculture sector as researchers, scientists, academics, etc 🙂
Indeed, rural women who are doing most of agriculture and feeding the world are the unsung heroes
This is very good and congratulation to our heroes
Kudos to them,and a challenge to remaining women out there,a proverb says what a man can do a women can do better.
Great post……the article is very interesting as women in Agriculture are really doing well in africa, thanks for sharing.
This is a great challenge to me that women are making great impact in agriculture. I graduated last year with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture in Kenya. I want to major in crop protection/plant pathology. I hope I will be able to make an impact in agriculture research in Africa.
Great job you doing.
THE WOMEN DRIVEN SUCCESSES: It is an obvious fact and absolutely commendable. Women are indispensable in any sphere of live and economic growth…… Give them the trial with a little opportunity and the necessary support, they will make the convincing best. However, except of the fact that our outdated traditional African belief, sentiment, ideology and mentality that women are not ripe to lead, but this is an illusion, in the modern times and today, those are obviously and completely obsolete. The world is dynamic and we need to move at pace it is necessarily and urgently demanding; and if it is the women that will lead us to achieving the successstory (glory), lets lend our sincere support and not to be biased. I hail all women around the Globe and Africa who in one way or the other is giving their best in no small measure to eradicate HUNGER, POVERTY, MALNUTRITION, DEGRADATION, DROUGHT, EROSION, FOOD INSECURITY through successful practice and advocacy of AGRICULTURE AND AGRIBUSINESS. GOD BLESS ALL WOMEN, GOD BLESS AGRICULTURE SECTOR. GOD BLESS ALL PRACTITIONERS, STAKEHOLDERS, ADVOCATORS OF FOOD SECURITY, HUNGER AND POVERTY ERADICATION. – Oguns Jnr, Nigeria.
it is good now but in this time I have some problem that is Ihave studied in Ethpia country MSC program in animal nutrtion in rural rigion, Ihave ended courses in private but to do research fund problem so please send in my account some money
Greetings, We are having our first Annual Freedom to Grow Conference in the USA, Hurst Conference Center, Hurst, TX October 4-7, 2018. We would like to invite all of the women mention about to speak at our conference. Please have someone reach out to us to make arrangements. urbangreenu@gmail.com