Agnes Karuiki

A Kenyan social entrepreneur who established women's agricultural cooperatives to empower rural communities in the 1960s.

Agnes Karuiki (1930–2010) transformed Kenya’s agricultural landscape by founding the first women-led cooperative networks in the 1960s. Growing up in a farming family, she recognized how gender inequality stifled economic progress. In 1964, she launched the Green Harvest Collective, a cooperative that provided women with seeds, tools, and market access. By 1970, over 300 cooperatives had been established, boosting food security and income for 20,000 households. Karuiki’s model was later adopted by the Kenyan government in its 1973 Agricultural Policy. She also pioneered agroecology practices, documented in 《Sowing Change》 (1985), a book that influenced global sustainable farming movements. Her legacy is highlighted in the Emmy-winning documentary 《Karuiki’s Harvest》 (2019), available on Netflix.