Tsedey Beyene grew up in Addis Ababa with two siblings, and all have completed university. Education was valued in the family. Their father is a hospital administrator, while their mother is a financial officer in the government. Her family used to live in a rural area, and it was this farming background that prompted her to study agricultural economics. “I decided to do a BSc in Agricultural Economics in order to see the changes in farmers and farms in Ethiopia,” Beyene says. “Ethiopian farmers are so poor—it’s the traders who profit and not the farmers.” She has recently completed a master’s in Sociology at Indira Ghandi University in India, and has been working at MEDA since 2010.