Baroness Minette Batters completes GROW for Good challenge

Baroness Minette Batters has successfully completed the GROW for Good Challenge, an epic fundraising challenge in support of the charity Farm Africa, as part of a team of 12 women from the UK food and farming industry.

The GROW for Good Challenge, which stands for Growing Resilience and Opportunities for Women, aims to raise £75,000 to support Farm Africa’s work supporting small-scale farmers in eastern Africa to grow and sell more, while adapting to climate change and protecting the environment.

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The adventure involved a three-day 75 km cycle along country roads in Embu County, Kenya, visiting and working on farms run by female farmers taking part in Farm Africa’s regenerative agriculture project and camping along the way.

Baroness Minette Batters (Image: Farm Africa)

On arrival at each farm, Team GROW put down their mountain bikes ready to get stuck in helping with hands-on regenerative agriculture activities like composting and mulching, which help farmers to increase their yields in a sustainable way, while also minimising costs.

Minette, who is an ambassador for Farm Africa and former National Farmers’ Union President, explained how impressed she was by the difference adopting regenerative agriculture practices had made for Juliet, a farmer supported by Farm Africa.

Minette said: “As a UK farmer, I’m pretty blown away by what Juliet is doing, because this is all about biology. It’s taking all the expensive inputs out: Juliet was saying she used to buy in fertiliser that was very expensive.

"Now she makes all her own compost. It’s a biological process that is saving her money, is far more sustainable and it’s good for the planet. It’s a win-win.

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"Everyone here has been blown away by the experience of meeting these farmers.”

The GROW team (Image: Farm Africa)

While experiencing life in rural Kenya, the team found out how Farm Africa improves farmers’ knowledge of good agricultural practices through an innovative network of village-based advisors, who demonstrate regenerative agriculture techniques to other farmers in their community.

The cycling part of the challenge lived up to its challenging name too. The team took on gruelling rides across tough terrain and dusty roads, coupled with the heat – and sometimes on little sleep.

Team GROW’s journey ended on Friday, October 25 with a roundtable event in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The event brought together female industry leaders including representatives from farming and development sectors, exporters, academics and NGOs to spotlight the essential role that women play in building and scaling resilient global food systems.

So far, the team’s fundraising total stands at just over £66,000. Donations can be made from this link.