Anushka Ratnayake
Helping smallholder farmers invest in their business — and move themselves out of poverty.
The 60 million smallholder farmers across the world grow much of our food. They are also the largest group of people living on less than $2 a day. Many go hungry each year, due to lean harvests and limited access to seeds and fertilizer.
Agricultural entrepreneur Anushka Ratnayake has built a solution that’s transforming the lives of these farmers. After years of working on microfinance solutions on the African continent at Kiva.org and One Acre Fund, she launched myAgro, a simple mobile app that offers educational tools and a platform that allows farmers to save money, little by little, for seeds and fertilizer.
Since launching in 2011, myAgro has helped over 115,000 farmers dramatically increase their crop yields. Farmers are known to harvest up to 100% more food after joining the app, using climate-resilient materials and methodologies they learn about through the platform. With current operations in Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania, plans are in place to reach one million farmers by 2026.
