Pauline Kalumikiza Mbukwa is the fourth of five girls born in a rural village called Mchinji in the central region of Malawi, and she learned to plant and apply fertilizer in the family’s garden as a young child. “My father, a commercial farmer made me realize the great potential that exists in farming—that there is income to be had through this line of work,” she says. “He really instilled a love of agriculture in me.