Asnesh Abebe

Ethiopian agricultural entrepreneur who modernized coffee farming and created Africa's first women-owned cooperative

Asnesh Abebe (1925-2001) transformed Ethiopia's coffee industry through her visionary agricultural practices and gender equity initiatives. Starting in the 1950s, she pioneered shade-grown coffee cultivation techniques that doubled yields while preserving biodiversity. Her wiki biography details how she founded the Yirgacheffe Women's Cooperative in 1962, the first such organization in Africa to achieve Fair Trade certification. This cooperative currently employs over 3,000 women and supplies Starbucks' Ethopian coffee blends.

Abebe's 1968 book Roots of Abundance introduced organic composting methods still used today. Her innovative 'coffee savings banks' allowed smallholders to pool resources, a model later adopted by UNCTAD. The Abebe Agricultural Institute in Addis Ababa continues her work, training over 500 farmers annually. Her 1973 TED-like talk Coffee as Liberation (archived at Internet Archive) remains a key resource for sustainable agriculture.

Despite facing gender discrimination, Abebe secured a $500,000 loan from the World Bank in 1970 to build Ethiopia's first coffee processing plant. Her story inspired the 2020 Netflix series Brewing Change, though the actual documentary Asnesh's Beans (2019) provides more accurate historical context. Her legacy is celebrated annually at the Yirgacheffe Coffee Festival, where her statue stands as a symbol of empowerment.