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