Pearl Gaone Ranna is 28-year-old Botswana born Farmer, Agriculture & Global Food Policy Analyst, Social Entrepreneur and Gender Equality Practitioner.
She is the co-founder and CEO of Agrinvestec, Botswana’s leading private sector owned Agricultural Development and Consultancy Agency.
She holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Agriculture and Development from the University of Reading, a Master of Arts (MA) in International Development and Policy from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Derby.
Ranna is passionate about alleviating poverty and hunger through empowering rural youth and women in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2018, she was the first winner of the Climate Hackathon Challenge, where youths had to address issues relating to adapting or mitigating climate change using various themes such as Agriculture, Health, Energy and Water basing it on the realities of Botswana.
Her solution in-comprised all the themes by providing a solar powered climate sensitive vertical aquaponics systems which works best in rural and urban areas of Botswana.
You can’t believe how hard it is to run your own business as well as raising a child,” says Ranna, who has firsthand knowledge, having experienced those challenges running a poultry operation while raising a daughter.
The program includes an early childhood development center for the children, so that while their mothers are receiving training and working on their farms the children are well cared for in a center-based learning environment. Revenues the women generate with increased productivity on their farms will go towards sustaining the program to provide training to new groups of women.
If the program is successful, as she believes it will be, she hopes it will contribute to policy changes that institutionalize such support for women farmers nationwide. “I am trying to advocate for policies for women and youth,” she explained. “To advocate effectively you need to be able to show something works.”
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