Winners of the Women in Ag Award

Onyaole Patience is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 20 years of agricultural experience in Nigeria. Working with her husband, she runs a business producing 12,000 broiler chickens per production cycle, as well as trading raw materials locally and internationally. Patience promotes access to scientific and innovative knowledge to increase efficiency and leads by example as a practitioner and farmer.

Judith runs a regenerative and sustainable dairy and teaching farm with her husband. She pays special attention to nature, biodiversity and the environment around her and organizes numerous activities to create understanding and awareness of agriculture in society. She is a facilitator, speaker, advocate and influencer for the industry.

Anna is a process engineer and food quality expert at Bühler. She founded and led the International Rice Milling Academy in Bangalore and works tirelessly to improve global food and feed safety. Her goal is to minimize losses during grain processing by improving storage techniques and educating customers, especially in tropical regions where storage losses are highest.

Joana’s (PhD, Professor) work spans sustainability, disease prediction, medical devices, food quality and agrifood manufacturing. She collaborates with diverse academic teams, earning international and national scientific recognition. This includes nominations from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), Forbes’ “30 Under 30 in Science & Healthcare” recognition, and distinctions like “Women in Science, 2021” from FCT & Ciência Viva, the “2021 Women Entrepreneurship Award” from the Católica Business School of Economics, and the “2019 Born From Knowledge” award from ANI.

Joana has raised around 8 million euros in private investments and public grants, showcasing her ability to secure support for innovative projects. She actively fosters innovation and scientific curiosity among students and researchers, significantly advancing science on a broader scale.

Forget’s contribution to sustainable agriculture and food systems has opened doors for her both locally and internationally, where she has led high-level discussions and advocated for women and smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and across Africa. Currently, Forget lives in Wales, UK, where she works as a sustainability consultant as part of her graduate program, helping small and medium-sized businesses in the agriculture, manufacturing, retail and energy sectors develop their sustainability goals and ambitions toward net zero.

Amina advocates for women’s rights in agriculture at national and international level. Through her expertise, together with the voices of the strong-willed women whose lives have been transformed by her school’s programs, she has become an influential voice in bringing about policy change to prioritize gender equality in agriculture.

Salatu Abubakar combines her expertise in empowering women smallholder farmers, processors and farming families through the building of capacity and agribusiness, with a genuine passion for empowering women in agriculture. As the Regional Representative for Women in Agricultural Development in the Northern Region, she has made a lasting impact on the lives of countless women by mentoring them and providing them with growth opportunities through linkages to the marketplace that have positively impacted their businesses and livelihoods.

Funmilayo is the deputy vice-chancellor of the Federal College of Animal Health and Production Technology, Ibadan. She has made it her mission to promote dairy farming and milk production in Nigeria. For example, she hosted the 2022 World School Milk Day in the country and coordinated the 2023 World Milk Day program. As a lecturer with broad access to young people, Funmilayo encourages her students to go into agriculture or study agriculture.

Nirit is an international scientist and lecturer in agricultural research. She has made exceptional, internationally recognized contributions to all areas of agricultural science (research, teaching, engagement, service and leadership). She is a global leader in cannabis research, focused on strengthening the medicinal value of cannabis.

Alfiya is an entrepreneur and agricultural technology expert with over 10 years of experience in business development, investment banking and agriculture. As co-founder and CEO of Green Growth, she provides farmers with critical information on field performance and yield data, helping them solve the problem of inefficient use of inputs such as fertilizer and seed, thereby increasing profitability.

Stefanie combines several functions of the company in one person: she is manager, chief scientist and mentor, as well as being responsible for the integration of several departments. She plays a key role in promoting state-of-the-art scientific techniques in the field of potato breeding. With her commitment and innovative ideas, she plays a decisive role in making the potato fit for the future, strengthening it for the coming challenges in agriculture, such as climate change, drought and foregoing pesticides, among others.

Solveig is the managing director at Eye-Grain, a company that continually introduces new technologies to the industry and was the first to monitor moisture and CO2 levels in containers in order to detect hotspots and insect or fungi spoilage at an early stage. She conducts research for Aalborg University, has been cited in numerous academic papers, and promotes measures for her employees to improve mental health and reduce stress.