African entrepreneurs awarded the Yara Prize

The Board of the Yara Foundation has awarded the 2007 Yara Prize for an African Green Revolution to Josephine Okot and Akinwumi Adesina for their pioneering work with agricultural inputs and agrodealer networks in Africa.

On July 4, the Board of the Yara Foundation announced their selection of Nigerian agricultural development and policy expert, Akinwumi Adesina and Ugandan entrepreneur and seed company executive Josephine Okot as the 2007 Yara Prize laureates.

The Board described Okot and Adesina as outstanding examples of a new generation of African entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks, take the lead and break new ground within African agriculture and food security.

African Entrepreneurs

The Yara Prize for an African Green Revolution is awarded by the Yara Foundation to commend outstanding efforts to increase food production and availability in Africa. The Foundation aims in this way to contribute to the economic and social development of the continent and its people.

For the 2007 Prize, the Yara Foundation focused on candidates who have shown both entrepreneurial excellence and the ability to work at many levels, from on-the-ground initiatives to strategy and policy. Okot, who has played a pivotal role in developing a private-sector agricultural inputs industry in her native Uganda, and Adesina, known for his lead in catalyzing the drive for a African green revolution, were natural choices.

The two laureates will each receive a grant of USD 100,000, in addition to the Prize diploma and trophy. The Prize will be awarded on September 1^st 2007 at a ceremony rounding off thesecond African Green Revolution Conference, which convenes inOslo, Norway on August 29.

Josephine Okot

As the founder and managing director of Victoria Seeds Ltd, Josephine Okot is ably demonstrating how to develop new markets and a local private-sector agricultural inputs industry in her native Uganda. Her efforts to reverse the decline in agricultural productivity in Uganda and other countries of the region are widely acknowledged.

Okot has also taken a leadership role in lobbying for appropriate policies and an institutional framework that help to integrate the African seed sector with the global economy. Among other things, she was the first chairperson of the influential Uganda seed traders association.

Okot, who has an International Business degree from Washington International University, held a series of managerial positions in marketing and export before making a courageous decision to enter the capital-intensive seed industry in 2003. From humble beginnings with very limited capital, she has developed Victoria Seeds Ltd into a full line seed company engaged in research, production, processing, distribution and marketing. Its turnover grew from USD 800,000 in 2004 to USD 1.5 million in 2006, a 40% increase.

Victoria Seeds had increased its original four members of staff to 22 by the end of 2005. Today it employs 30 permanent and 40 non-permanent workers, 60% of whom are women. With limited mechanization, the company delivered 850,000 kgs of certified seed to farmers in 2004. This rose to 1,032,000 kgs in 2005 and 1,250,000 in 2006.

Victoria Seeds contracts over 200 growers to produce its seed, giving them employment and an assured market. The company markets over 55 seed varieties – from groundnut and pigeon pea to sesame and soybean, maize, rice, millet and sorghum to vegetable varieties like Abelmoschus, and Crucifers – providing for the needs of 25% of the smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Proclaimed Uganda’s leading woman entrepreneur  in  2006 by Business in Africa Magazine, Josephine Okot is now working to expand Victoria Seeds’ distribution capacity and network to the East and Central African regional market.  She also functions as Management Committee Co-Chair of the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program at FARA – the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa. FARA is an umbrella organization bringing together and forming coalitions of major stakeholders in agricultural research and development in Africa.

Akinwumi Adesina

Akinwumi Adesina is a highly experienced and internationally respected agricultural development and policy expert, with over 20 years of top-level experience in African agricultural and rural development. He has served on major global initiatives on agriculture and poverty reduction in Africa, developed innovative models for accelerating agricultural growth for poor African farmers, interacted at the highest levels of policy making and influenced African Heads of State to develop bold policy initiatives for the poor.

Adesina, who has a Doctorate in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, is passionately pro-poor and committed to ensuring that Africa achieves its green revolution. This aspiration is channeled through his role as Associate Director, Food Security and Africa Regional Program at the Rockefeller Foundation. 

Adesina led the Rockefeller Foundation to embark on a major restructuring of its world-renowned agricultural sciences program to incorporate a major focus on market development for farmers. He now manages an Africa-wide program on the development of agricultural markets, policies and institutions for increasing incomes of poor rural households.

For an African Green Revolution 

The Yara Foundation Board hopes that this award will underpin the significant progress that has been achieved by the two winners in their pioneering work with agricultural inputs and agrodealer networks in Africa. It also hopes the Prize will serve as a source of inspiration for African entrepreneurs in their efforts to realize Africa’s green revolution, reverse hunger and create development throughout their continent.