Jury

The jury is composed of the following members, each brings a distinct perspective to the Smart Ag Award.

Roland Wittner

Before joining the equity and funds department at KfW, Roland spent 13 years in the private banking sector, specializing in project finance. Currently, he concentrates on funds within the agricultural and nature-based solutions sector, which encompasses not only working capital finance aimed at enhancing food security but also pioneering initiatives at KfW related to carbon capture projects. Roland holds degrees in economics, as well as business and human resource education, from the universities of Gießen, Exeter, and Frankfurt.

What Climate Smart Agriculture means to them:

To me, smart agricultural practices involve moving beyond a narrow focus on individual aspects of the agricultural value chain. Smart agriculture is essential for addressing the significant challenges humanity faces today, including the need for innovative supply chain solutions, tackling food scarcity, and overcoming labour shortages in the agricultural sector.

Martine Sikkema

Martine joined the credit committee of responsAbility’s Climate Smart Agriculture Fund in 2022. She has 35 years of experience in the financial sector, which includes over 30 years at the Dutch Rabobank for which she worked amongst others as a senior advisor in Indonesia and as a credit director in Mozambique. She has also had, as the Dutch say, “her feet in the clay”, when she worked for the Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) project in Tanzania, a project aimed to increase the availability of climate smart foods for the growing populations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. For this project, she helped agribusinesses to develop strategic and financial plans to make their businesses more climate resilient. Martine holds a bachelor’s title in Commerce and an executive Master in Finance.

What Climate Smart Agriculture means to them:

To me, climate-smart agricultural practices are actions that are taken to grow more food in a sustainable way – protecting our environment today while preparing for the climate of tomorrow

Suhasini Singh

Suhasini is the Global Head for Sustainable Food Debt, Country Director for India and a member of the Senior Executive Management Team, for responsAbility Investments AG. She leads the private credit strategies for sustainable food, which are invested in emerging markets across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Overall, she has 23 years of experience across corporate and structured finance, performing credit and loan markets, impact, ESG and sustainability investing across emerging markets. Through early-stage exposures to a wide variety of business models, she has experience in working with companies on formalizing their governance, controls, audit and reporting capabilities making them ready for larger investors and lenders . She is interested in supporting entrepreneurial organizations in building an impactful legacy

What Climate Smart Agriculture means to them:

Climate-smart agriculture isn’t just about feeding the world today—it’s about ensuring the world can eat tomorrow.

Apply Now!

You can apply if you are a company working with the responsibility managed Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Systems fund or aiming to get funded by the fund.