Henok Alemayehu

Ethiopian agricultural innovator combating food insecurity through sustainable farming

Dr. Henok Alemayehu is transforming agriculture in Ethiopia through his Green Fields Initiative, which has converted 150,000+ hectares to sustainable farming since 2020. As a soil scientist from Addis Ababa University, he developed ZomaAgro - a mobile app predicting soil fertility and pest outbreaks with 85% accuracy, now used by 300,000 farmers.

His ZomaTech company produces biofertilizers from local plant residues, increasing crop yields by 30% while reducing chemical use. The Climate-Resilient Maize Project (2022) introduced drought-resistant strains adopted by 80% of Ethiopian maize farmers. This work contributed to a 22% decrease in maize imports between 2021-2023.

Alemayehu's partnership with the FAO created the African Soil Health Network, training 10,000+ agricultural extension workers. His YouTube channel provides free farming tutorials in Amharic with 2M+ subscribers. In 2024, he launched Women's Agripreneurship Fund, providing microloans to 5,000 female farmers. His research published in Nature Sustainability (2023) outlines a framework for scaling regenerative agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa. The Ethiopian government adopted his National Agroforestry Strategy in 2025, targeting 50% forest cover restoration by 2030.