Alice Ruhweza: From Fort Portal Farm Girl to AGRA President Betting on Africa's Future

Alice Ruhweza grew up on her father’s smallholder farm in Fort Portal, where he supported six children through university after retiring as Uganda’s first post-colonial Chief Game Warden. Now, at the age of assuming leadership of AGRA on March 1, 2025, she leads efforts to turn African farming into a thriving business.

With three decades in telecoms, environment, and conservation—including roles at Nema, UNDP, WWF, and Conservation International—Ruhweza realized agriculture drives both wildlife loss and over half of Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions. Her mantra: when farmers prosper, Africa prospers, enabling education, healthcare, and economic contributions from the 60-70% of the population in farming.

AGRA, founded 20 years ago to mirror Asia and Latin America’s agricultural success, faces climate shocks and underfunding, with governments spending under 5% of budgets on a sector contributing 25% of GDP. Ruhweza prioritizes drawing private investment, ensuring farmers’ profits, linking agriculture to health and climate finance, and reviving traditional knowledge.

She pushes for intra-African trade to cut $100 billion in food imports, reduce 40% post-harvest losses via projects like REGAIN in Uganda and six other countries, and leverage tech like AI extension services and digital platforms such as Ghana’s Grow4Me.

As a female leader, she emphasizes humility, empathy, and collaboration, learning from farmers like in Ethiopia who knew their needs better than top-down plans. Success, for her, means real money in farmers’ pockets from food crops turned into value chains, mirroring thriving agribusiness in Europe and beyond.

Her father’s stand against wildlife destruction inspires her continental mission for smallholder farmers.

Source: Daily Monitor (Uganda)