Empowering Women in Agriculture

Paula: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of chatting with the experts. with Paula Okonneh, that’s me, as your host. Every week I bring to you amazing, I love that word amazing, I bring to you professional women business women from Africa, from the Caribbean, and in the African diaspora. And what they do with you is to share with you their expertise, so that at the end of the show, the mission is accomplished. And what’s that mission? Our mission is to educate, empower, and inspire women globally. Every week we’ve been able to do that. I’ve also made some exceptions because we’ve had some men and join us and they have also shared the same mission and done exactly the same thing. Today, we are going to be talking about the roots of innovation, African diaspora women in agriculture.
[00:01:00] And with me to do that would be Martha Haile. But before we, I will bring her onto the show, I’ll tell you a bit about her. She is an entrepreneur with a business background in the agricultural technology sector, and she has held key leadership roles in prominent Ag-tech startups and has spent the past decade living in Kenya and Nigeria while working across Sub-Saharan Africa. I know I haven’t said a lot about her, but I’ll let her do that. And so with that, I want to welcome Martha Haile to the show.
Martha: Thank you. Hey, Paula. Hey, everybody.
Paula: Welcome to the show. And I didn’t say that much about you because I always like my guests to talk a little bit about themselves. I know you’re a company and I’m, how do we pronounce it? Abze?
Martha: Abze. Yes.
Paula: Yes. Abze is a media and events company that is [00:02:00] dedicated to amplifying the stories, innovations and visionaries, which transforms African food system. So we’re going to be talking about all of that today. So welcome, welcome. And thank you for saying yes to being on the show.
Martha: Well, thank you. Thank you so much for having me today. It’s a pleasure to be here. So, yes, my name is Martha Haile. I am the founder and CEO of Abze which is a digital media and events company, as you mentioned, .We are focused on really amplifying, as you mentioned, the amplifying the stories of the visionaries and All the good things that are happening within and across the food system in Africa, and I just recently actually launched the company and the vision really is to center Africa in this global food system discussion.
A lot is happening within the food and agricultural sector, and I would like to support the transformation of what this food system looks like. And I want to center African voices. [00:03:00] And not just our voices, but the innovations that we are, that are taking place across the continent that I think can actually support the forward movement of the food system globally. To be honest, Africa can actually feed the world. And so we want to be able to tell the stories of that. And I know we’ll get into some of that today.
Paula: Absolutely. So I know you’re a co founder of Hello Tractor. Yes. Tell us about that. I love that name.
Martha: Yes, I came up with the name a long time ago. We thank you. Yes, I co founded Hello Tractor, which is a digital platform with the goal of connecting smallholder farmers to mechanization. So it’s actually a hardware and software solution to bridge the gap between smallholder farmers and tractors and mechanization to fast track production within smallholder farming communities. So what that basically means is that across Africa, many farmers today are still using hoes, they’re still [00:04:00] using their hands to actually produce their land, and it’s hard. It’s backbreaking work, and more and more people are moving away from the agricultural sector because it’s just very hard.
And to be honest, it doesn’t reap a lot of benefits. Incomes are quite low within farmer populations. And so many years ago, we came up with this idea of having a sharing economy type of business model that allows tractor owners to share their assets, essentially rent out their tractor assets to farmers. And so many people might call us like an uber of tractors, which is an easier way to understand the business model. It’s really about bringing together the demand and the supply side of that part of the agricultural production particularly in Africa. We’ve started in Africa. And we started in 2014 and we just passed our 10 year mark this past June, which is very exciting for [00:05:00] us. And last year, we actually reached over a million people, a million farmers across Africa with mechanization services.
Paula: Oh, that’s impressive. So you may reach the million farmers. Is it sub-Saharan Africa or all of Africa?
Martha: Right now, we primarily focus on sub-Saharan Africa. The company is and has looked at North Africa has looked at Southeast Asia in addition, and we had a pilot many years ago. We had a pilot in Bangladesh. We actually do have some customers in Pakistan as well. So yes, we actually are in both sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia as well. One day, actually, we’re even represented in the Caribbean as well. And so, yeah, this is a solution that can go around the world.
Paula: All right. So you came up with the name Hello Tractor and you said it’s like an Uber of tractors. I really like that because as you mentioned, a lot of farmers, and let’s talk about sub-Saharan Africa are really limited because [00:06:00] of a lack of equipment. And so you have gone and partnered with them, I’m assuming, or partnered with companies that are able to subsidize the work. How does that quite work?
Martha: Yes. So what we did was we have a hardware unit that gets retrofitted onto tractors. And so similar to cars within an uber system, they have GPS tracking devices within, you know, on the phones as an example. So you know where the cars are at all time. And for us, the data that’s emanating off of the tractors, Is very important for tractor owner, so they’re able to tell where their tractors are at any time of the day, which operator is attached to their tractor. What’s the fuel level? What’s the service that they’ve rendered that day? And this is all really important data.
Right. So as much as we’re a tech company, data is also really critical for Hello Tractor’s business model as well, because all of that data that’s coming from the tractor and from the farm [00:07:00] itself is helping the tractor owner understand, okay, am I using my tractors? Are they utilized at 100 percent or am I only using them half the time that I can actually use them? Because if I increased the tractors usage, I can make more money. I can reach more farmers. So, on the tractor owner side, the supply side, it’s, it makes business sense for them to utilize their tractors at 100%, right? And to have eyes on that tractor and to ensure that they understand really the health of the tractor, but also the profit that they’re getting from each of the tractors that they have deployed across the market.
And then we have a marketplace, right? And so we have booking agents who go out into farming communities with a mobile phone. And they go to farming communities and they say, Hey, you know, farmers, would you like mechanization services? I’m representing Hello Tractor. We can input your data here with your mechanization needs and that demand request is then [00:08:00] matched with the supply of the tractor in their local geographic area. And so then we’re able to match demand to supply. And so we work with, and when I say we, I’m no longer at the company, but of course, I’m still always part of Hello Tractor since I’m a co founder. But Hello Tractor works with a variety of partners, whether it’s tractor manufacturers, or it can be government, local government.
Obviously, farmers and tractor owners and booking agents are also key to this model. You have multilaterals, you have venture funds and investors of different varieties. So there’s a wide array. Of partners that Hello Tractor has to be able to have this type of growth and scale. The company is in over 20 countries and to reach over a million farmers with an expensive asset like a tractor is not easy. So yes, they work with many different partners. [00:09:00]
Paula: Phenomenal. I love it. Okay. Now you mentioned that you’re a co founder, but you’re no longer as actively involved. And I know that reading your bio and speaking with you off camera some time back you mentioned that you were the vice president of WeFarm, the business that we found. Yeah. And because you mentioned the word we, when you said we, and then you said, well, I’m no longer there. It jogged my memory about WeFarm.
Martha: Yeah.
Paula: Yeah, so tell me more about WeFarm. I mean, you’re no longer with them, but I know it has to do with agriculture, and I know that’s what we’re basically talking about today.
Martha: Yeah, so I was at Hello Tractor for about just under five years, and we were very heavy on the supply side, really understanding the supply side. When I went to WeFarm, my interest was on the demand side. So WeFarm was a company that it has shut down in 2022. But it was a company that was focused on [00:10:00] aggregating farmers in a digital way. So with creating a digital community of farmers. And at one point, there was over 3 million farmers aggregated on the platform. And I was really interested in how do you have all these farmers in one area? Because and not to get too technical, but on the supply side for agricultural companies that are deploying products and services to farmers in Africa.
Unfortunately, you know, we are very challenged by the fragmentation of farmers. Many farmers have lands they produce on and they’re scattered across different geographic areas, whether it’s a country, you know, region they’re scattered everywhere so to actually reach the last mile with an agricultural products or service, it can be very expensive. And so, something that really helps agricultural companies be successful and be able to scale is when you bring and when you cluster farmers together, right? Because it makes more sense to sell if you have a thousand farmers [00:11:00] in one area, rather than going to an area that might only have ten farmers, and then you may have to go a hundred miles somewhere else to then reach the next ten farmers.
Unfortunately that company shut down, but for me, both of those experiences, co founding Hello Tractor and then joining Wefarm that lasted about nine years, you know, and it was quite amazing, about eight and a half years. And these two startups were really my entry point into startup land. I was never in startups. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur per se, it was never a goal of mine. And I didn’t even work in agriculture. I didn’t even work in Africa before Hello Tractor in 2015. So really, like 2015 was my journey into agriculture, into startups, into working in Africa. So at this point now, it’s been just about 10 years of kind of working within this space and sector. And it’s been incredible. A lot of learned lessons.
Paula: What kind of [00:12:00] lessons I can just imagine, especially, you know, let’s be very frank, Africa, that’s our culture. We tend to be more of a male-dominated society and now you’re going in as a woman. How does that work? You know, women in the agricultural sector.
Martha: Yeah, it’s, well, you know, I think there’s about 500 million smallholder farmers across Africa, right? It’s still the dominant industry, meaning that most of African labor is working within agriculture. And depending on which country you’re in across the continent, 40 to 60 percent of those farmers are actually women. So in one arena, it’s, you know, I’m not on my own. There’s actually a lot of women. That are within agriculture work within agriculture. But now, when you look at what are the different roles and positions and where are women actually working, then you start to see how women tend to… I don’t want to use the [00:13:00] term pigeonholed, but they tend to, exist or work in specific areas within agriculture and so for me and technology or me and startup and being in a leadership position kind of across different companies. Yes. You then start to enter into a more male-dominated kind of industry, and I think this is true across many different industries around the world, but I will say that for me, I feel like I’ve always kind of operated on the outside in some way.
Like my family is Eritrean, but. They’re refugees and political asylees, and they settled in Rochester, New York, when I was born, right, in Rochester, New York. So already kind of this diaspora kid, you know, you’re always slightly different, you know, so I’ve always kind of operated slightly on the outside. I’ve never been like, within a group of people where like, yes, I’m 100 percent just like this group of people that I’m around. So it’s not… yes I’ve, you know, I experienced challenges and plenty of stories that I can share [00:14:00] offline, maybe on a separate show. I could share those, but like, it’s, you know, it’s, I feel like for many women, especially within the African diaspora, it’s something you just have to get used to.
Right. And you have to leverage a lot of skills, whether it’s resilience, whether it’s, you know, speaking across kind of different types of communities and different audiences, I almost feel like growing up, providing me with my foundation and my base to be able to work in a male dominated industry, because I’ve always been on the outside. I’ve always been something different. And I’ve always had to then navigate the different situations, whether it’s school, whether it’s all the different work experience that I’ve had to be able to achieve what I wanted to achieve. Right. I want to do my best. I want to bring value to any company that I’m in and any team that I’m on. And so it’s something that I feel like I’ve just learned over time.
Paula: I certainly understand that. My children told me that about being different, being on the outside. But you know, in [00:15:00] fact a few hours ago, I was just speaking to someone about that. My parents were from two different parts of the world. And because of that, we lived in different countries. And as a kid, I didn’t like it. You know, it always felt that I was trying to fit in. But as an adult, I realized that there was a plus to it.
Martha: Oh yeah.
Paula: The plus is that I can live anywhere now. I see that people are people irrespective of where they are, what they look like people, you know, so,
Martha: Absolutely. To be honest. And for me, I almost feel like it’s a superpower. Right. So, something that is very it’s like one of my, it’s so core to my being like inclusion. So when I’m ever in any environment, I oftentimes think about who’s being left out, who is not, you know, how are we not creating the right type of space for all of the different voices and different personalities. And I just, I don’t even like situations or environments where people are trying to close it off. You know, like you can’t sit with us [00:16:00] or this is so exclusive for me. I love transparency and this is actually one reason with even with digital media, why I’m going into it, being able to leverage data and to leverage the internet, to be able to expose millions of people to the type of information and the stories that they need to be successful to me is not only key for agriculture, but it speaks a lot to I think this experience of always feeling kind of left out, right? Be transparent, like everybody deserves access to all of the different opportunities out there. And the more transparent we are with the right type of data, then you’re going to be able to provide a pathway for people to be more successful. That’s what I believe.
Paula: And you’re right. And you know, data is so important these days because it shows us patterns, like we say, the numbers don’t lie, data doesn’t lie. And it shows you so much of, you know, what’s going on, what’s not even spoken, but it’s actually [00:17:00] there. So, still on the topic of agriculture, you know, there’s the misconception of when we hear of Africa, these days, you know, growing up in my days, they would always show such terrible pictures, you know, flies in children’s noses. They would never show you or the media never showed you the positive sides of Africa because there’s so much that isn’t known. And when you don’t know what you don’t know, you’re really not knowledgeable. I don’t want to say ignorant. So, you know, so come back to Africa, there’s a, we hear a lot about food insecurities. And because you’re in that field, how and what is being done to you know, provide food security? What type of sustainable agricultural development is being put into place to provide food security for our people?
Martha: [00:18:00] There’s a lot that’s there’s a lot of innovation that’s happening. I think we’re in a we’re in a fascinating time, right? Things are moving so fast. You have AI, I was just listening to a podcast about how fast generative AI is moving tech and just the whole world, right? And it’s You know, not all of it is penetrating in the agricultural sector in Africa, per se, but a lot of it is right. And so you have a lot of consideration for kind of climate smart agriculture, meaning soil preservation, right? Like, how do we regenerate our soils? They’re depleted, right? Of the nutrients that they need to be able to grow quality crops. the yields that can actually be to support the feeding the continent and feeding the world.
Right. So there’s a lot of work being done around soil health. And when I say a lot is being done around it. I mean, like money flows as well, right? So it’s not just we’re talking about it. It’s [00:19:00] that more and more kind of climate financing, regenerative kind of soil health financing is taking place. Conservation agriculture is taking place as well. So it’s I think that we’re moving in the right direction because you know, I think overall, the global food system is at an inflection point. By 2050, this is something we talk about a lot within the, in the sector is that 2050, there is going to be a massive population boom.
I mean, by 2050, our continent of about, I think, 1. 1 billion, it’s going to be 2 billion. Right. And that’s in less than 30 years, almost a billion extra people. So how do we feed a billion extra people on the continent, right? And part of that is looking at more sustainable methods of agricultural production, because not only is it good for the planet when we Improve the way that we are producing our foods, but it’s also good for the outcome, [00:20:00] i. e. like crops are just going to be better. They’re going to be able to grow more crops if we think a little bit. And if we kind of change our production patterns but what has to happen, though, is Information has to flow down. It has to, we have to provide a little bit more democratic access to the types of information around agricultural production that will help not only the financing, but people actually change what they’re doing.
Right? Because many farmers, you know, they’ll mention, well, we’ve been doing it this way for generations. Right? And so we’re just going to continue. Yeah, and we’re just going to continue and part of that I get there’s things are changing all the time. Like, you have to do this. And then a year later no, no change it completely. Now you have to, you know, produce it this way and, you know, farmers and I think it’s just true pretty globally, but farmers are not the richest people on earth. Unfortunately, there’s a big issue when it comes to farmer [00:21:00] income. And not just in Africa. So, for farmers to take a risk to change the methods that they are using for production.
That’s a big risk, right? And, so they, we have to prove to them why they should do that risk. So, It’s not just on the farmer. It’s around the whole ag-ecosystem. But guess what? Every single person in this world is part of the ag-ecosystem because we all consume food. And so even the decisions that we make on the types of foods that we want to eat. You know, our expectation on how much food should actually cost, where we go to eat and how we eat and how we consume, like our decision making is also really important when it comes to things like food security and sustainability as well.
Paula: I love that example you gave, you know, that we’re all part of this business because we all eat food. And you know, you said so much, I mean, like, you know, [00:22:00] people study demographic, at least in the United States. And so you go to different areas and you see that the stores are stocked differently depending on the demographic. That makes sense. You know?
Martha: Yep.
Paula: We are all involved in that. I’m talking about that. I’m sorry. Go ahead.
Martha: I said yes. I think it’s such an important point because we oftentimes just separate food from agriculture as if food just appears at the grocery store at the restaurant or on your table. But there is a whole, the path from the farm is so important. And I do think that we need to have a lot more respect for and thanks and be grateful for where our food is coming from. The earth itself, but also from the farmers who are producing our foods. And I again, when I’m talking about how consumers are thinking about all of this, we are all involved, right? And so all the decisions that we’re making on a daily basis, it’s impacting a whole supply chain.
Paula: So [00:23:00] true. You know, making people more aware that the food that you eat, there’s somebody and other things that are going on behind the scene that you’re just not aware of. But, you know, within the last 10 years or so, I’ve seen people actually become more interested in this, you know, where is this food being sourced from? Because it makes a difference. You know, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who was very interested in organic farming on a small scale. And I said to her, you know, even your potting soil, you’ve got to look and see what makes up that potting soil. Because if you want to say that you are planting something that is organic, if the soil that you’re planting it in is not organic, then it defeats the whole purpose. And potting soil, from what I mean, I was shocked the first time I looked at the ingredients in potting soil and to discover that it wasn’t really soil per se.
Martha: Yeah.
Paula: So many things are involved or added to it. So, yeah.
Martha: And [00:24:00] you’re right. And sometimes we may not know the toxicity of the soil, which, you know, if the nutrients, if there’s unhealthy kind of matter in the soil, that can affect your food, and it may not even be on the food manufacturer, the one that’s actually producing it. It’s really what’s coming from the soil. So that’s why I’m saying like there’s many really amazing initiatives that are happening globally around soil health, soil regeneration. It’s a massive topic, it’s really, you know, they’ve been studying it for many years. I’m catching up, we’re all kind of catching up on what does it mean to regenerate soils. Regenerate rural communities right into making sure that from the very foundational. Part of ag like we are aware of how healthy or unhealthy it is, and how that impacts everything. So yeah, it was great advice.
Paula: Yeah, you know, I sat and I thought about it for a [00:25:00] while, especially when I discovered that planting soil is like reclaimed material and I was like, wow, and you think that you’re planting, okay, I’m not buying this stuff from the store. I’m actually getting the seed and planting it in my soil in my house. You got to look at all of that. It’s important.
Martha: Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
Paula: Wow. I can’t believe you’ve been speaking for over 25 minutes. But before you go again, because I like to emphasize that most of my women guests are from Africa, the Caribbean, or in the African diaspora. Are you seeing more of a conversation and building the bridge between the African diaspora and even with agriculture? You know, we talked earlier on about how at some point, Africa, the population is growing. We need to have food security. But then I also heard you talk about how at some point we may be the ones who are feeding the world. So we need to have, you know, a [00:26:00] bridge between the African diaspora and the rest of the world. Are you seeing anything going in that direction?
Martha: Yes, absolutely. I can actually give a shout out to my friends at Dine Diaspora. They are a group that was founded by Ghanaian American women. They’re based in the U. S. and they are shining a light on African foods and African chefs a lot. That’s happening in the U. S. Right. And so even by rebranding and by marketing our foods, like our chefs that are cooking Ethiopian foods and, you know, across the States or Ghanaian and Nigerian it’s really important because stories are important, right? Our pride of what our foods are and were, how do we reclaim some of the recipes that are lost, right? How do we actually note that down? There are a lot of great cookbooks that are coming out, right? Or that have been out the last couple of years, all on African [00:27:00] dishes, right? And I think that having the pride and writing it down and actively sharing it within the diaspora is going to have an impact on business, on trade, because it shines more of a light on, oh, there are consumers, the demand side of food, people actually want to eat these types of foods that maybe we’re not growing enough of across a few different countries, but probably across the continent.
There’s also a real interest in indigenous crops and you know, there are crops that are native to African lands that, you know, we forgot about where we went to rice and to wheat and to all of these crops when we have fonio, you know, we have cassava and so, some of these crops also do very well in arid or semi arid lands, and we don’t have to get into that, but it’s important kind of on the fact that they can grow in all sorts of environments, right? Because we have climate change that’s impacting weather [00:28:00] patterns and all of that. And so, yeah, I, I think that there’s a lot happening. I think a lot happening globally and it’s exciting and I would love for it to just continue to grow. And I hope I’m part of, bringing that type of value to not solely what’s happening in Africa, but how do we continue to export, right?
Because we can feed the world. We have 60 percent of the world’s arable land is in Africa, right? Our water tables are very strong. And so these are things that we can Really leveraged to be able to improve our production and continue to hopefully export more than we import going forward. Yeah. So yeah, there’s I think there’s a lot happening in the diaspora and I think It’s beautiful to see, right? And it’s not only beautiful to see, but we know that through stories and through, through culture it’s going to have an impact on business and trade. And at the end of the day, what oftentimes matter is like the bottom line, like who’s [00:29:00] making money? Like if there’s a demand, like we will grow it and we will sell it.
Paula: Yes, I agree with you 100%. So it’s up to us to create that demand. Because the bottom line, you know, if there’s no demand, there’ll be no supply. So it’s up to us to create awareness, you know, as you’ve said, be proud of our food, patronize the restaurants abroad that are, you know, indigenous to us. And as you say, you know, change our taste buds. It doesn’t always have to be rice. Or meat. We have our own taste just as good and it’s just as nutritional.
Martha: Yes. And one more thing, I would love for people to actually come back to Africa. Like, come to all of the countries across Africa, eat the foods here, you know, I respect and love travel around the world. There’s so much travel to Europe and I always wonder why not Africa? Like when you come and just, even that tourism bit is [00:30:00] going to play a part in agriculture as well. Right. Because if you’re going on food tours of Senegal and who doesn’t want to go on a food tour in Senegal, you know, so, the more that you also use your money again, consumers. If you know where you spend your money is important, and I just think that that’s just as important as the story to really kind of continue to impact the food story, African kind of food story and journey to be able to position us to be able to do everything that I think this continent can do within food and agriculture.
Paula: I love it. In January, a group of us are going to be doing a retreat in Ghana, and it’s going to be a retreat, but it’s also going to be discovery. Discover Ghana, discover the food, the culture. Yes, as you said, come back to Africa, it’s necessary. We need to go back and discover what’s always been there. You know, I said discovery, you can’t discover something that wasn’t there, you know what I [00:31:00] mean? So it’s got to be there for it to be discovered. And we’ve got so much to offer.
Martha: Yeah. Okay, I’ll connect you with a few friends that I have there. There’s some interesting things happening on the food front in Ghana, for sure. That’s a great country to be.
Paula: I’m looking forward. We’ll talk about that offline. But then, talking about offline and online, how can people connect with you online, Martha?
Martha: Yes, so LinkedIn, please feel free, anybody. Send me a message, I’m always happy to connect, and we just launched our Instagram, it’s at abze_africa, we will be launching YouTube and our LinkedIn page soon as well, but for right now, either LinkedIn me personally, or follow Abze on Instagram, and watch our story grow from here.
Paula: And I’ve done both, and it’s pretty interesting. Yeah. So thank you, Martha, for coming on to Chatting with the Experts TV show. And for those of you who are viewing this or listening to this because we do a podcast, if you’re interested in [00:32:00] being a guest on the show, please reach out to me on my website, which is chattingwiththeexperts. com. I’m also on LinkedIn, just like Martha. I love LinkedIn, actually. Just search for Paula Okonneh there. You’ll find me. I’m on Instagram. My business page is at chat_experts_podcast, and I’m on Facebook these days. Just look for me, Paula Okonneh, and connect with me there because my mission is to have professional and business women from Africa, the Caribbean, and the African diaspora educate, inspire, and empower women globally. Thank you, Martha. This has been great.
Martha: Thank you so much. Yay. Thank you so much. It was my pleasure. I appreciate you. This is a great program.
Paula: Thank you.