Farming is the key to Africa’s prosperity

If Africa hopes to spark an agricultural transformation, the gender gap must be addressed, writes Melinda Gates

AFRICA’S GDP is now growing faster than any other continent’s. When many people think about the engines driving that growth, they imagine commodities such as oil, gold, and cocoa, or maybe industries such as banking and telecommunications.

I think of a woman named Joyce Sandir. Joyce is a farmer who grows bananas, vegetables, and maize on a small plot of land in rural Tanzania. When I met her in 2012, she had just harvested her first crop of maize grown from a seed specifically adapted for Tanzania’s climate.