Ratnayake, Anushka
CEO and Founder, myAgro
Anushka is the Founder and CEO of myAgro. myAgro is a nonprofit social enterprise that enables smallholder farmers to use their mobile phones to pay on layaway for high quality inputs (seeds, fertilizer) and agricultural training. These investments allow farmers to produce 50-100 percent more food each season, significantly improving the food security of farm families and helping them move out of poverty.
myAgro is the only organization globally that is implementing a mobile layaway approach to serving smallholder farmers. Anushka has worked in rural Africa since 2008, helping to increase food security and market access for small-scale farmers. Prior to starting myAgro, she developed key components of One Acre Fund’s core operation model, created management-training programs and traveled across Africa and South Asia in search of innovations in the microfinance and agricultural sectors.
Before joining One Acre Fund, Anushka was an early employee of Kiva.org and created the Kiva Fellows Program. Anushka received her BA in Literature from University of California, Santa Cruz and her agricultural training from smallholder farmers in Bungoma, Kenya. Anushka is a 2011 – 2013 Rainer Arnhold Fellow, a 2012 Echoing Green Fellow and a 2013 DRK Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Fellow.