<<90000000>> viewers
<<240>> entrepreneurs in 17 countries
<<4135>> agroecology videos
<<105>> languages available

Our team

Access Agriculture is a group of passionate people devoted to promoting effective agricultural training videos for the benefit of farmers and rural businesses.

To develop local language versions, mass multiply and disseminate agricultural training videos, Access Agriculture collaborates with more than 200 communication professionals across the globe.

Our passionate team

Jo Rodgers

Jo Rodgers

Executive Director

has an MA in Mass Communications from the University of Leicester in the UK, and BSc in Agricultural Science. For over 35 years, Josephine has run businesses and worked with organisations and companies throughout the world, managing large projects and creating award-winning multi-language interactive training packages on agriculture, food and rural development. Josephine is a co-founder of Access Agriculture.

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Paul

Paul Van Mele

International Director

is an agricultural scientist with a PhD from Wageningen University. For over 25 years, Paul has managed agricultural R&D projects dealing with sustainable agriculture across the global South. Paul has spearheaded farmer-to-farmer training video, coordinated research on video-mediated learning and taken it to scale. In 2010 he swapped his senior position as Program leader on Learning and Innovation Systems in the CGIAR to start his own enterprise. In 2012, Paul co-founded Access Agriculture to create impact at scale.

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evena

Evana Rahman

Team leader - ICT

received her MBA from the University of Dhaka and has a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. She has worked for eight years with national and international organisations in Bangladesh on business development and communications. Prior to joining Access Agriculture, she worked in the NGO BRAC on market research, brand management, media campaigns, knowledge management and client communications. Evana has strong experiences in programming languages and graphics software. She believes communication is an art, and is eager to invest her skills for the betterment of rural livelihoods.

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jonas

Jonas Wanvoeke

West and Central Africa Co-ordinator

is rural development specialist. He studied agricultural sciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin and completed a PhD in Social sciences at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He has worked in extension and agricultural R&D for 15 years with government agencies, NGOs and international organisations. He was involved in development projects supporting rural innovations and actively promoted the dissemination of farmer-to-farmer videos in Africa for the past decade.

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Laura Tabet

Laura Tabet

Regional Representative - MENA region

has a Masters in Marine Management from Dalhousie University in Canada. She is passionate about extension for small scale fisherfolk and farmers. Laura is co-founder of the NGO Nawaya in Egypt with programmes that focus on ecological agriculture and heritage food preservation. Laura has worked on farmer-to-farmer video production since 2013, and has now become Access Agriculture’s Egypt Focal Point. She is keen to promote the platform to Arabic, French and English-speaking viewers in North Africa and the Middle East.

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Jeff

Jeff Bentley

Latin America co-ordinator

has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Arizona. He did practical research on natural pest control for seven years at El Zamorano, an agricultural university in Honduras. Jeff has worked in many countries in Latin America, Africa and South Asia. He lives in Bolivia and is fascinated by farmer experiments and local knowledge. Jeff teaches scriptwriting for Access Agriculture and has written many papers on how videos spark the creativity of farmers and others. Jeff speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and some Quechua, so he clearly appreciates the importance of language.

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Blessings Flao

Blessings Flao

Malawi & Southern Africa Co-ordinator

has a BA in Media for Development from the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College. He has coordinated communication interventions on agriculture, health and social protection, working with international NGOs as well as government agencies. Blessings has over 10 years’ experience in Communication for Development (C4D) and Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). He enjoys the challenges of capacity building in communication as well as cultivating partnerships with a wide variety of stakeholders.

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Danessa

Danessa Lopega

Philippines co-ordinator

has a Bachelor of Science degree in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She has published articles, videos, and other content for four years to promote social change and has worked with several organisations and organised cause-oriented programmes, which influenced her to be passionate about advocacies including environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture.  Whilst a student she worked as an intern with Access Agriculture, helping to translate a number of “farmer to farmer” training videos into the Tagalog language.

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Nafissath Fousseni Barres

Nafissath Fousseni Barres

Team leader - Local Engagement (Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation Officer)

holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Agricultural Administration from the University of Ghana, Legon, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Science with major in Rural & Agricultural Ventures Management from the Catholic University of West Africa: Benin University Unit, Cotonou. She is a proactive bilingual agricultural graduate who has worked throughout West Africa, for the past 5 years, with national and international organisations in areas of Teaching, Market Information System, and Monitoring & Evaluation.

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Kevin Mutonga

Kevin Mutonga

Global Translation Co-ordinator

studied for a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Management Science at Egerton University, Kenya and CISCO Networking Modules in Tracom College Kenya. He has worked with Addis Ababa University Faculty of Architecture. Kevin supports and coordinates translations into local language versions of technical training programmes for farmers as well as assisting on various training courses which Access Agriculture run. Kevin has a keen interest in visual and design process in the creative world.

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Olivier Gbetin

Olivier Gbetin

Regional Translation Co-ordinator (West and Central Africa)

Is a filmmaker trained at  the Higher Institude of Audiovisual Trades (ISMA), Benin. He worked for 3 years at Songhai Center in Benin as video editor. Olivier backstops and coordinates video translation in local languages in West and Central Africa and helps Access Agriculture video production partners in finalising the farmer to farmer training videos. He has a particular interest for the dissemination of good agricultural practices through videos.

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Vinjeru Nyirenda Mlenga

Vinjeru Nyirenda Mlenga

Entrepreneur coach - Southern Africa

holds a BSc in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science from the University of Malawi and has received a Post-graduate Certificate for Food Value Chains from Weihenstephan-University of Applied Sciences in Germany. She has worked within the private and public sector for more than 5 years in areas related to capacity building of entrepreneurs, farmers, SMEs. Vinjeru has worked in projects funded by GIZ, USAID, DFID and other government projects. She strives to assist entrepreneurs to realise their potential and help them achieve their mission, goals and objectives through hard work and determination.

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Josualdo Semedo

Josualdo Semedo

Entrepreneur Coach – Guinea-Bissau

graduated in agro-food engineering from the University Institute of Technology of Maracaibo, in Venezuela with a strong agroecological focus. Since returning to Guinea-Bissau, he has been president of AYL-FAIN (African Youth on Livestock Fisheries Aquaculture Incubator Network) at national level. Prior to joining Access Agriculture, Josualdo worked as Coordinator of REPEPA-GB (Incubation Network, Promotion of Entrepreneurs and Agricultural Producers in Guinea-Bissau) to promote rural entrepreneurship in Guinea-Bissau.

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Ezra Masolaki

Ezra Masolaki

Entrepreneur coach - East Africa

holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture and Rural Innovation from Makerere University, Uganda, he has also completed several courses including Management of Rural Employments from the National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad, India. Ezra is currently pursuing an MBA (Entrepreneurship) from the Amity University Online in India. In 2018 he founded Tree Resource Enterprises, a social enterprise that was recognised by the World Resources Institute Program of Land Accelerator as one of the companies restoring degraded land and forests in Africa.  Ezra has five years’ experience in agriculture extension through his work with Mbale Coalition against Poverty (a World Agroforestry project) and Trees for the Future International projects. He intends to use the opportunity of being an Access Agriculture Ambassador to further extend the productive knowledge of rural women and youth through video sharing with community farmer platforms and social media farmer groups. 

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Karine Rakotoniainasoa

Karine Rakotoniainasoa

Entrepreneur Coach - Madagascar

has a Master's degree in Botany from the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. As an entrepreneur herself who is passionate about agroecology and committed to improving farmers conditions, Karine worked for 3 years with a community in a remote area of the Malagasy highlands, promoting sustainable agricultural practices and opening up access to better markets for agricultural products before joining Access Agriculture.

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Mounica Lingireddy

Mounica Lingireddy

Entrepreneur coach - India

graduated in Agriculture from Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Andhra Pradesh, India. Before joining Access Agriculture, she worked for four years to motivate farmers to adopt natural farming through various approaches including Farmer Field Schools (FFS), cultivating crops in a natural way & conducted training on natural farming principles. She has a passion for ecological agriculture and wants to help farmers improve their livelihoods.

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Pakki Nandini

Pakki Nandini

Entrepreneur coach - India

has a graduate and post-graduate degree in Agriculture, Rural and Tribal Development, from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute, Jharkhand, India. She has worked with different NGOs including on projects on Regenerative Agriculture. She has a strong interest in ecological agriculture and wants to make a real contribution to a greener healthier planet.

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Rama Venkatraman

Rama Venkatraman

ICT Officer

has a BA in Economics from Kamarajar University, Madurai, India and post-graduate diplomas in Systems Management and Business Management from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), Hyderabad, India. With a unique blend of creative and technical expertise, Raman has a versatile skill set combining web design, video and audio production, photography, print design and digital marketing. He was Webmaster (2002-2013) and Multimedia Designer (2014-2019) at AfricaRice. He is proficient in current digital and social media tools and trends and in software packages, including content management systems.

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Kannappan Sornanathan

Kannappan Sornanathan

ICT specialist

Kannappan is an electronics and communications engineer with extensive experience in the field of agricultural engineering. For 8 years was an associate scientist at M S Swaminathan Research Foundation. Kannappan is working as an ICT specialist at Access Agriculture and also pursuing a Master's program (by research) at IIT Madras.

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Marcella Vrolijks

Marcella Vrolijks

Video Specialist

has an MA from the Arts Academy in Hasselt, Belgium with a focus on graphic design, after which she further specialised in video production. Marcella has produced numerous high impact, award-winning farmer-to-farmer videos for international organisations. For more than 10 years she has been involved in training local professionals to produce quality videos for farmers. Marcella has lived and worked most of her career in the U.K., West Africa, South and South-East Asia.

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Savitri Mohapatra

Savitri Mohapatra

Mass Media Officer

has an MA in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and a post-graduate diploma in Journalism and Mass Communications from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Savitri has over 25 years’ experience in strategic communications, stakeholder outreach, science writing, storytelling and content development related to agricultural research-for-development across Africa and India. She contributed to public awareness at ICRISAT from 1996 to 2002 and led strategic communications at AfricaRice from 2002 to 2019. Savitri is keenly interested in sustainable agriculture, food and nutrition security, gender inclusiveness and farmer empowerment.

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Phil Malone

Phil Malone

Communications Specialist

is a geographer and an ex-BBC radio broadcaster. For well over 35 years, Phil has advised senior government officials on communication throughout the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He has worked with professionals in many industries to help them communicate more effectively. Much of Phil’s expertise includes assisting with the drawing up and implementation of communication strategies for the agriculture, health, food and rural development sectors and it is in this area that he provides inputs for Access Agriculture. Phil is also a co-founder of the organisation.

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Judy Muturi

Judy Muturi

Office Manager (Nairobi)

Is in charge of the financial oversight of Access Agriculture. Having qualified with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting Option) from University of Nairobi, Judy has worked with many aspects of one of Kenya’s leading banks. Now she is enjoying the challenge of being part of a small team, but is determined that the efforts of Access Agriculture should help farmers. Judy is also keeping the office function of the Head Office in Nairobi under control.

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Richard Ndibaru

Richard Ndibaru

Office Assistant (Nairobi)

assists Judy on all matters to do with finance and administration. He has a Bachelor of Economics and Mathematics from the University of Nairobi and has studied for the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) professional course. Before coming to Access Agriculture, he worked in several private organisations in both accounts and administration departments.

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Enagnon Djodji

Enagnon Djodji

Office Manager (Cotonou)

qualified with a bachelor degree in management from University of Abomey Calavi (Benin). She has worked for many years in the private and public sectors. Interested in agriculture, she has participated in many conferences on organic and ecological agriculture, human nutrition and family agriculture. Enagnon is responsible for the accounting and administrative management at the regional office for West and Central Africa, based in Cotonou, Benin.

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