Dee Punungwe-Chijota & Ko Chijota // GGEM Farming
Training and infrastructure for Malawian farmers.
About the Founders
Dee is a seasoned farmer, founder, and agronomy buff. Before becoming an architect for respectful and sustainable farmer-family-focused development solutions, Dee studied Business Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, graduating in 2010 and moving back home to do things differently. Dee’s passion for design and women in agriculture allowed her to co-build a farmer-first model. Dee believes that commercializing smallholder production will change Africa’s landscape via re-establishing farmer trust, and meaningfully investing in food system strengthening to maximize food access across Africa.
A proactive, highly driven commercial farmer, and agri-value chain builder with a background in law and commodity marketing, Ko has diverse international experience gained while working for value-driven organizations in the UK, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. Ko champions respectful farmer engagement, promoting joint solutions with farming communities that build sustainable food production and distribution pipelines.
About the Venture
GGEM Farming is a redemptive marketplace for farmers that buys, processes, and sells farmer produce. GGEM Farming significantly boosts farmer incomes through its services by investing a 0% input loan in their farmers to help them grow their yield and improve the quality of their crops, along with training, tools, and localized infrastructure developments to improve food production volumes and lower food logistic costs. This approach uplifts farmers, their families, and communities. GGEM Farming is driven to deliver an alternative food system for the 18 million+ people across rural Malawi who depend on agriculture to survive.
Redemptive Opportunity
We live in a world that doesn’t value the sources of an integral basic need: food. Smallholder farmers produce over 80% of the food consumed in Africa, and yet they are the poorest people on the continent. GGEM’s mission is to put farmers first. Often, the assumed potential of smallholder farmers is defined for them, not explored with them. GGEM has the proximity, experience, and passion to build an alternative equitable food system that’s focused on helping our farmers and their communities to thrive.
