Elizabeth Mpofu

Elizabeth Mpofu (born 1959) is a small-scale organic farmer, writer and activist based in Zimbabwe. She is General Coordinator of Via Campesina and in 2016 was Special Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the International Year of Pulses. She is also founder and chairperson of ZIMSOFF (Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum).

Early life

Elizabeth Mpofu was born in 1959. She has three children and nine grandchildren.

Mpofu is a small-scale organic farmer based in Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe. She has her 10 hectare farm as a result of a land reform programme begun in 2000. She grows maize, legumes and other beans.

Activism

Mpofu became a member of the Association of Zimbabwe Traditional Environmental Conservationists in 1982. She later became a founding member and then chairperson of ZIMSOFF (Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum). In 2016, she was appointed Special Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the International Year of Pulses. Mpofu became coordinator in 2013 and campaigns on issues such as gaining access to land and eradicating violence against women. The declaration was then approved by the United Nations General Assembly later in the year.

Selected works

Elizabeth Mpofu (2016) 'Women farm through knowledge sharing' in Farming Matters. Elizabeth Mpofu & Ndabezinhle Nyoni (2017) 'Role of pulses and smallholders in the transformation of Africa's agriculture' in Nature & Faune.