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Number 88 on the 2025 list
Esther Ngumbi is an associate professor of entomology and African-American studies from Kenya, named to the AFN 100 in 2025 for setting out five fixes for rising hunger in Africa in a Project Syndicate column.
In August 2025 Esther Ngumbi, who grew up in Kwale County on Kenya's coast, used a Project Syndicate column to set out five fixes for rising hunger in Africa: soil health, farm research, new technology, women farmers and young people. She noted that Africa's undernourished population rose from 296 million to 306 million in a year, that up to 65% of its farmland is degraded, and that most countries spend under 1% of farm output on research.