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Published through the | Press Service August 17, 2022 | special focus
By Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.
Russia’s war in Ukraine did not take long to have an effect in Africa. Already suffering from runaway inflation and still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, Africa now faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tons of food, especially wheat, corn and soybeans imported from Russia and Ukraine.
Increases in the value of fertilizers of more than 300% make it increasingly difficult for African farmers to grow enough wheat, maize, rice and other crops. An increasing number of other people in Africa can no longer afford bread.
Africa is struggling to alleviate a famine sparked by a clash that could plunge some 30 million Africans into catastrophic levels of food insecurity. This could exacerbate economic tensions and political unrest. As millions of people struggle to buy food, fuel and fertilizer, anti-government protests are a genuine possibility.
From the outset, the African Development Bank learned the strategic need to address the devastating impact of war on Africa’s food security. It was vital to avoid unrest and even more human suffering. In less than 60 days, it has implemented systems worth $1. 13 billion under the Fund and in 25 African countries. A half-dozen more systems are expected to launch through September, as more governments apply for the service.
The African Emergency Food Production Facility will supply wheat and other climate-friendly seeds from skilled staple crops and increase access to agricultural fertilizers to 20 million farmers. Over the next two years, the service will allow farmers to produce another 38 million tons of the food, a 30 percent accumulated in local production, worth an estimated $12 billion.
While this is a smart start, Africa wants the foreign grid to fill a $200 million investment hole for the facility. President Joe Biden approved the African Emergency Food Fund, and this is a welcome endorsement, as it is for Africa from the African Development Bank. Disaster Risk Financing Program.
To help African governments pay flood and drought insurance premiums and better respond to the lack of confidence in food caused by climate change, the Disaster Risk Financing Program is an indispensable long-term component of the Fund.
To encourage agricultural production in Nigeria, Tanzania and Côte d’Ivoire, the Japan International Cooperation Agency recently partnered with the African Development Bank to co-finance the African Emergency Food Production Fund programmes. International progress agencies and a coalition of developing nations are also supporting the African Emergency Food Production Fund.
Launched in 2018, the African Development Bank’s flagship Technology for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program provides technologies in the form of climate-resilient crops: seeds resistant to drought, maximum temperatures or pests, for example.
In Ethiopia, thanks to heat-resistant wheat seeds financed by taat, the country has more farmland from 50,000 hectares to another 675,000 hectares in just 4 years. TAAT’s climate-smart seeds allow wheat cultivation to thrive in ethiopia’s arid lowlands, where wheat types sometimes don’t fare well.
More locally grown wheat has reduced Ethiopia’s dependence on wheat imports. By joining taat, the country did not want to import wheat for the first time this year. With the Bank’s continued support, Ethiopia will be a wheat exporter in 2023. It will export more than one million metric tons of wheat to Kenya and Djibouti. That’s enough food to feed 10 million people for 12 months.
The African Development Bank what works.
TAAT has already reached 12 million farmers. We call on our partners and foreign governments to join us as we expand TAAT through the new African Emergency Food Production Facility.
Our commitment to helping Africa produce more food through adaptation to climate substitution has won the support of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who recently said that the Bank’s allocation of a component of its climate finance to adaptation is the popular step to be taken by foreign components of progress. The U. S. Treasury Decomposer The U. S. Government has approved the African Emergency Food Production Fund as a component of the International Financial Institutions’ Plan of Action to Address Food Insecurity, a shortlisted program consultant for donor countries.
Africa wants food aid to feed itself. Africa wants the right investments and seeds in the ground.
The Emergency Food Production Fund for Africa will provide a rapid solution to the demanding dual global shock and climate change situations, and will play a rapid, medium- and long-term role in expanding the African agricultural sector as a basis for African resilience. Economies.
Political reforms will bring about the structural reforms needed for market-based input distribution and more competitive crop production.
Now and in the future, the African Development Bank proposes a plan shown to unlock Africa’s food production perspective and see Africa as a breadbasket for the world.
The article was first published on the online page of China Global Television (CGTN. com) on August 5, 2022. Distributed through APO Group on behalf of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).