Makara Endong

A Congolese environmental entrepreneur revolutionizing sustainable agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Makara Endong is a visionary agricultural innovator from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has pioneered a groundbreaking approach to sustainable farming practices across Sub-Saharan Africa. Born in 1989 in Kinshasa, Endong's early exposure to deforestation and food insecurity inspired her to create GreenRoots DRC, an organization that has transformed over 200,000 hectares of degraded land into productive agroforestry systems by 2023. Her Three-Layer Farming Model integrates cash crops with native tree species and nitrogen-fixing plants, doubling crop yields while sequestering carbon. By 2025, her initiatives had empowered 15,000 smallholder farmers with training programs certified by the Global Agriculture Certification Network.

Endong's impact extends beyond agriculture: her Seeds of Solutions initiative provides microloans to female farmers, creating a $2.3 million revolving fund by 2024. Her work has been featured in Nature Conservation Journal and inspired the UN's 2022 Africa Agroforestry Decade initiative. She currently advises the African Union's Climate Smart Agriculture Task Force, advocating for policies that integrate traditional knowledge with modern agrotechnology.