African Development Bank (AfDB) president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina said the bank is set to deliver climate-adapted, certified wheat and other staple crops seeds to 20 million farmers.
Adesina said this in a document titled, “Averting an African Food Crisis: The African Food Production Facility”
He said the initiative, which was part of activities by the bank would tackle food crisis in African countries including Nigeria.
“From the onset, the African Development Bank realised the strategic need to tackle the devastating impact of the war on Africa’s food security.
“It is important to prevent unrest and even more human suffering.
“In May, the bank established a 1.5 billion dollar African Emergency Food Production Facility.
“In less than 60 days, it put into action 1.13 billion dollar-worth of programmes under the facility across 24 African countries.
“Half a dozen more programmes are expected to get underway by September as more governments apply to the facility,’’ he said.
According to him, food aid cannot feed Africa because Africa does not need bowls in hand.
“Africa needs seeds in the ground and mechanical harvesters to harvest bountiful food produced locally.
“Africa will feed itself with pride because there is no dignity in begging for food.’’
