*The African Development Bank says the lender is supporting the Nigerian wheat farmers to scale up production to mitigate food crisis and lay foundation for agricultural transformation to drive economies, and sustain livelihoods聽 across the African continent

Alexander Davis | 绿帽献妻

In an effort at reducing wholesale importation of the agricultural produce, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said the continental lender’s heat-tolerant wheat production support will help to reduce product importation by 40 percent by 2023.

绿帽献妻 gathered Ms. Beth Dunford, AfDB鈥檚 Vice-President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, said this in an interview at the sideline of the Bank鈥檚 2022 Annual meetings in Accra, Ghana.

Wheat farmers in Nigeria

Ms. Dunford said the support would come under the Bank鈥檚 $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Facility, agency report said.

The AfDB chief also noted that the heat-tolerant wheat technology would have huge impact on food and help farmers to scale up production in the West African country.

The technology is currently being deployed in Nigeria, and it鈥檚 being cultivated on 87,000 hectares and in this season, we can go up to 250,000 hectares, she stated.

Dunford further disclosed that AfDB is currently working to know how much of the money would be allocated to each country.

According to her, every country on the African continent is eligible for the fund.

The Vice-President as well said that the intervention targeted at Smallholder Farmers (SHFs) would help them to increase agricultural production.

She said: 鈥淭his is the basis of the 1.5 billion Dollars Africa Emergency Food Production Facility that was just approved by the Board.

鈥淭his facility will be supporting African government to reach 20 million farmers with improved technologies like the heat tolerant wheat to produce 38 million tonnes of food on the continent.”

Dunford further noted: 鈥淲e will do this in an emergency way to scale up production to mitigate crisis in a way that will provide the foundation for agricultural transformation, to drive economies and sustain livelihoods in Africa and Nigeria.

鈥淓very country is eligible but we are working on that now but again, building on the work that is already on-going in Nigeria to scale up quickly.”

She also said: 鈥淭he technologies will be adapted to local conditions needed in each context like in flood, heat.

鈥淭here are also technologies that we can working on to deploy which are needed in Nigeria which you know is very diverse with different climates.

“We will be working across different crops, technologies across the country in different states.”

Two-thirds of Africans depend on agriculture

Meanwhile, Ms. Dunford said that two-thirds of the people in Africa have depended on agriculture for their livelihood.

She, however, observed that the challenges in the sector, caused by climate change and the Russian-Ukraine conflicts, were connected to the current high poverty level on the African continent.

Dunford noted: 鈥淎bsolutely, given that two-third of the people in Africa depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

鈥淚t is not just the farmers but those within the food system, it could be the processors, transporters, aggregators.

鈥淭he whole agriculture economy fuels the livelihood of the economy in the continent so if this sector is suffering, everybody suffers.

鈥淭here is a big connection to poverty but the growth of the agricultural sector is on track with the launch of many agricultural transformation projects on the continent by the Bank.”

The AfDB Vice-President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, therefore, appealed to the Nigerian Government to support the Bank by using the electronic wallet (e-wallet) systems to make sure that the intervention reached Smallholder Farmers in the rural areas.

Kindly Share This Story