Leah Wakathare Karangi

Leah Karangi is not simply a farmer. She is an agripreneur who is demonstrating how agriculture can become a platform for enterprise, innovation, employment and opportunity.

Through Ginene, Leah has taken one of Kenya's most humble crops—chilli—and built an increasingly integrated value chain around it.

From cultivation and farmer engagement to processing, product development, branding and market access, Leah has worked to ensure that more value is created and retained locally.

But her greatest achievement is not the chilli.

It is what she is building around it.

Leah's agricultural model connects underutilised land with a commercially viable crop, connects farmers with markets, connects young people and women with economic opportunities, and connects Kenyan agricultural production with consumers looking for distinctive, value-added products.

She has helped train and engage more than 100 young people and women, while developing opportunities across farming, processing and value addition.

Her approach challenges the idea that agriculture must remain at the level of raw commodity production.