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Determination Overcomes Devastation

It was an honour to recently accompany Alice Kachere, a smallholder farmer from Malawi, when she gave a presentation at a meeting at the OECD. Her personal story is extraordinary. In 1999, she lost her husband, and due to a lack of marital land rights, once he died she lost all her land, her home, and was left with nothing but three young children. Despite the devastation, she now farms one hectare and has begun renting some land to further her farm thanks to a ten–fold increase in her maize yields due to combination of better planting techniques, hybrid seeds, fertilizer and organic manure. Alice, her children, and her 79-year old mother now have their own two-room house.

See part of the Wall Street Journal coverage on her remarks:
http://online.wsj.com/video/feeding-a-growing-global-population/E437B1E8-4D66-4148-AF42-E821DE45EA54.html

Robynne Anderson

Robynne has extensive experience in the agriculture and food sector, working throughout the value chain – from basic inputs to farmers in the field to the grocery store shelf. She works internationally in the sector, including speaking at the United Nations on agriculture and food issues, and representing the International Agri-Food Network at the UN.Throughout her career she has worked with farm organisations like the Prairie Oat Growers Association, the National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi and the Himalayan Farmers Association, as well as global groups, to further the voice of agriculture in the food debate. She has also worked with Fortune 500 companies growing worldwide businesses to assist them with issues management and strategy decisions.

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