AfDB to invest $24bn in agriculture in 10 years – Adesina

The African Development Bank (AfDB) says the bank will invest 24 billion dollars in agriculture over the next 10 years to help unlock its potential and assure food security in Africa.

Adesina said this at a side event of the ongoing Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, USA on Wednesday.

Adesina said there was need for supportive public policies and significant investments in infrastructure, especially for roads, irrigation, storage, warehousing and agroprocessing.

He said that AfDB would provide support to strengthen African agricultural research and development systems to play significant roles in the transformation processes.

The former Agriculture Minister said the support was to ensure that valuable research no longer simplified gathered dust on the shelves of academia.

The president said that AfDB’s Feed Africa strategy had launched the Transformation of the African Savannah Initiatives (TASI) to help unlock the potential of the Savannas of Africa.

He said that the initiative would start by bringing approximately two million hectares of savannah in eight African countries – Ghana, Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Mozambique. (NAN)