PRESIDENT OF the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said it is about time countries in Africa prepared for the inevitable global food crisis.
Speaking about Africa’s priorities as a guest at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center he called for an increased sense of urgency.
According to him, the continent’s most vulnerable countries had been hit hardest by conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, which had upended economic and development progress in Africa.
He said Africa, with the lowest GDP growth rates, has lost as many as 30 million jobs on account of the pandemic.
Dr. Adesina warned that the tripling costs of fertilizer, rising energy prices, and rising costs of food baskets, could worsen in Africa in the coming months.
He thus noted that in order to fend off a food crisis, Africa must rapidly expand its food production.
“The African Development Bank is already active in mitigating the effects of a food crisis through the African Food Crisis Response and Emergency Facility – a dedicated facility being considered by the Bank to provide African countries with the resources needed to raise local food production and procure fertiliser,” he said.
“My basic principle,” Dr. Adesina said, “is that Africa should not be begging. We must solve our own challenges ourselves without depending on others…”
The bank chief spoke about early successes through the bank’s innovative flagship initiative, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme, a programme operating across nine food commodities in more than 30 African countries.
Dr. Adesina said TAAT has helped to rapidly boost food production at scale on the continent, including the production of wheat, rice and other cereal crops.
“We are putting our money where our mouth is. We are producing more and more of our own food. Our Africa Emergency Food Production Plan will produce 38 million metric tons of food.” TAAT has already delivered heat-tolerant varieties of wheat to 1.8 million farmers in seven countries,” he added.
