Ann Steensland leads the GAP Report Initiative for CALS Global at the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In this role, she serves as the lead author of the Global Agricultural Productivity Report, or GAP Report, an annual analysis of global progress toward productive sustainable food and agricultural systems. Her research areas include sustainable approaches for increasing the productivity of small-scale agriculture, improving livelihoods for small-scale farmers, and connecting small-scale and emerging farmers to markets. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Ms. Steensland was the Deputy Director of the Global Harvest Initiative and the Chief of Staff of the Alliance to End Hunger. Ms. Steensland has a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. in African History. She was awarded the Lawrence Levine Prize for her M.A. thesis exploring racial, political, and environmental aspects of the commercialization of agriculture in South Africa.
#InternationalWomensDay: Hellen’s story
March 02, 2021
Hellen Wanjiko Waweru, a Kenyan smallholder farmer, shares her farming practices, challenges, and hopes for the future in this documentary short.
By GAP Report team, filming by Moses Irungu
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations suggests that improving women’s access to productivity-enhancing agricultural inputs and knowledge would enable them to produce 20 to 30 percent more food.1 This in turn provides positive impacts on children’s nutrition, health, and education, and could increase national agricultural outputs by as much as 4 percent.2
In honor of International Women’s Day, the Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Initiative is sharing the story of Hellen Wanjiko Waweru, a Kenyan small-scale farmer, who describes her farming practices, challenges, and hopes for the future. Hellen was featured in the 2020 GAP Report film, Agricultural Productivity in a Time of Pandemics – Stories from the Front Lines.
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