Food security: Africa should be providing global solutions, says AfDB

Akinwumi Adesina, president, African Development Bank (AfDB), says Africa must be a solution for food to countries around the world.

Adesina said this on Monday at a meeting with journalists ahead of the bank’s 2022 annual meetings in Accra, Ghana.

He said the bank was ready with plans to avert any looming food crisis, adding that, contrary to reports, the continent will not experience a crisis.

According to him, the bank had developed an African emergency food production plan that would provide 20 million farmers with improved seeds and fertilisers to produce food worth $12 billion.

“Our Feed Africa ‘High 5’ work has already benefited over 76 million farmers with access to improved agricultural technologies,” Adesina said.

“I am not scared of food crisis. To deal with anything that is a crisis, you must have a plan.

“Africa must be a solution for food for the world because we have 65 percent of the arable land. Noise is not equal to data and fear is not a statistic.

“You may ask, why am I so confident that we will be able to avoid a looming food crisis?

“It is because our plan is based on the incredibly successful work of the African Development Bank through its `High 5’ on Feed Africa.

“The bank has also been implementing a very successful programme, technologies for African agricultural transformation (TAAT), which is getting agricultural technologies to farmers at scale.

“Africa does not need bowls in hand, Africa needs seeds in the ground.

“Africa should not be begging for food; Africa must produce its own food. There is no dignity in begging for food.”

Adesina further said the bank would be celebrating the African Development Fund (ADF) which would turn 50 years this year and has contributed $45 billion to support Africa’s low-income countries.

“We would be discussing with the board of governors, on how to raise more resources for the ADF to better support low income and fragile countries in the continent.”

Speaking on boosting agricultural production in Nigeria, Adesina said the bank was ready to help the country return to the electronic wallet system of input distribution to farmers.

“Nigeria needs to go back and use the electronic wallet system that I developed when I was a minister to get fertilisers straight to farmers and cut out all the middlemen, he said.”