From a small poultry project to a world stage: Lesotho's Malerato Khoeli is one of FAO's first 100 Women Heroes

Malerato Khoeli started with a small project raising hens for eggs in her community of Khanyane, Lesotho. She kept going — into commercial pig farming, then large-scale grain production — building each step with her neighbours rather than apart from them. This month in Rome, at a ceremony held alongside the World Food Forum 2026, she was named among the very first recipients of the FAO 100 Women Heroes Awards, a new honour for women farmers who have grown subsistence farming into enterprises that strengthen whole food systems. Khoeli dedicated the award to the people of Lesotho and urged women to persevere in agricultural entrepreneurship. FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu called the honourees 'women of substance', noting that closing agriculture's gender gap could add $1 trillion to the global economy and lift 45 million people out of food insecurity. King Letsie III of Lesotho attended the ceremony. A lifetime of feeding people, recognised on a world stage — and handed straight back, by Khoeli herself, to the community that made it.

SDG 2 · Zero hunger — Mechanism: individual leader