问与答：女人必须“做艰难的事情”才能脱颖而出

[NAIROBI] Agnes Kalibata, a Rwandan who grew up in Uganda with refugee parents, had an ambition to become a medical doctor or anengineer。

但是，当她的父亲从教学转向农业以资助他的孩子的education, little did Kalibata know she would end up being anagriculturalscientist.

现在，作为自2014年以来的非洲绿色革命联盟主席，卡利巴塔（Kalibata）正在通过旨在吸引数百万小农户的计划来帮助改变非洲的农业部门。

In 2012 she won the Yara Food Prize – now the Africa Food Prize, and in 2019 the US-based National Academy of Sciences awarded her the prestigious Public Welfare Medal “for her work to drive Africa’s agricultural transformation through modern science and effective政策，帮助将超过一百万卢旺达人摆脱贫困”。

“准备好努力工作，但也准备好做硬事情。”

Agnes Kalibata, AGRA president

Kalibata tellsscidev.net渴望成为科学家的非洲女孩和年轻妇女不仅要准备好努力工作，而且还应该做“艰难的事情”。

告诉我们您的童年

I grew up in Uganda to refugee parents. Even though my dad had been a teacher in Rwanda, the only thing he could do as a refugee in Uganda was to farm. He was determined to see that his children got better out of life than he did.

As I grew older, I developed a habit for reading, especially in my secondary school where I got to see a library for the first time. This helped me understand that there was a whole other world around me.

Building on my parents’ efforts, I got best student scholarship for secondary education from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) and later obtained a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation to study for a master’s at Makerere University in Uganda and then a doctorate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States.

您作为科学家和决策者的旅程是如何开始的？

当我在乌干达的马卡拉雷大学（Makarere University）获得第一学位时，我加入了乌干达Kawanda农业研究所的国际热带农业研究所（IITA），担任研究助理。beplay下载官网西西软件对于我的主人来说，我的工作专注于自然控制香蕉的主要害虫，香蕉是乌干达的主要主食。

“We have built the African Green Revolution Forum into a continental platform that brings policymakers, scientists, farmers and business leaders together.”

Agnes Kalibata, AGRA president

这项工作继续写入我的博士学位。我努力了解农作物，害虫和生物控制选择。我将香蕉植物追溯到其原产地。从乌干达到印度尼西亚，坦桑尼亚，泰国和越南。By doing research on farmers’ plots in each of these countries, I was able to establish why the banana weevil was a pest in Uganda but not a pest in the area of its origin in South East Asia where it was under the control of natural enemies.

I cut my postdoctoral work [on banana bacteria wilt] short when I got an opportunity to go to Rwanda and lead a World Bank rural development project in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources. That was the beginning of my shift from being a scientist to development work and later to policymaking.

您是如何成为卢旺达农业和动物资源部长的？beplay下载官网西西软件

在2008年至2014年成为部长之前，我在农业和动物资源部的卢旺达担任过一些职务。beplay下载官网西西软件

When I was appointed to lead the agricultural ministry, I had a lot of support from the president and the government. This gave me an opportunity to combine and to apply the scientific and technical knowledge I had acquired to work with the whole of government and marshal partnerships that enabled us to move from a country where people went to bed hungry to a food self-sufficient nation in a period of five years.

因此，卢旺达的食物非常安全，能够大大减轻贫困。在同一时期，农民的产量增加，贫困降低了12％。

What are your achievements as president of AGRA?

阿格拉（Agra）旨在帮助非洲农民利用科学知识和技术来改善生活：提高获得改善的品种，获得土壤生育能力管理的机会，并了解农业可以蓬勃发展并增强进入市场的政策环境。beplay下载官网西西软件beplay足球体育的微博

来自政府，我看到了帮助阿格拉了解政府如何运作以及如何利用它们的机会。

我为阿格拉（Agra）与合作伙伴合作以减少所谓的包容农业转型合作伙伴关系的重复资源而感到自豪。该合作伙伴关系旨在支持国家拥有的计划并减少当地捐助者的分裂，这是一个长期存在的问题，损害了发展成果的交付速度。

我们曾与私营部门合作，并搬到了新的地理位置上，在那里农民从未获得改进的技术，例如改进的品种，以及有关如何最好地管理这些投入的信息。我们一直在与私营部门建立规模平台，通过与地方政府和地方私营部门合作，可以联系一群全新的农民。

我们已经将非洲绿色革命论坛建立在一个大陆平台中，该论坛将决策者，科学家，农民和商业领袖召集在一起，并介绍农业部门及其对非洲大陆的重要性。beplay下载官网西西软件

您作为非洲的女科学家还取得了哪些其他成就？

I sit on many boards where I bring not only the African perspective on development issues that impact agriculture on the continent. Whenever I can, I mentor young people. Personally, I take it as a responsibility to support young people – especially women — to help them understand that they have a huge place and an important role to play in the world.

目前，我还担任2021年食品系统峰会联合国秘书长的特使。这个角色是一个巨大的责任，但它是一个让我关心的事情的机会：结束饥饿和贫穷，结束营养不良以及应对气候变化。

您对旨在成为非洲科学家的女孩和年轻女性有什么建议？

我没有开始尝试成为一名科学家。但是现在，借助我们周围的所有创新和技术，女孩有机会真正梦想成为一名科学家。我和我八岁的女儿看到了。她以我没有成长的方式接触技术。她梦想着从化妆到飞机一直设计！

Agriculture today is not about killing pests like I thought back then. It’s about solving big problems – especially around climate change – gene editing, big data and many more.

女孩和年轻妇女，您正在进入男性繁重的领土。您需要发育一些浓密的皮肤。准备好努力工作，但也准备好做硬事情。找到您足够关心的东西，因为必须保持您的前进。

这件作品是由Scidev.net的撒哈拉以南非洲英语桌子制作的，并为简短和清晰而编辑。