Chiji Ojukwu: Director, Agriculture and Agro-allied-industry Department, AfDB

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is making giant strides in its prized agricultural transformation strategy to make Africa self-sufficient in food production. This is the take of a new report, Development Effectiveness Review on Agriculture.

According to the report, besides investing US$5.5 billion in the agriculture sector so far, the AfDB has recorded remarkable achievements on many fronts.

“The Bank trained three million people on better farming practices, put 20,000 food marketing and storage into use, constructed 4,000 kilometres of feeder roads, offered 150,000 microcredit loans, irrigated and built other water systems on 181,000 hectares of farmland,” the report card reads in part.

The review also chronicles the progress and the pitfalls to date in transforming Africa’s agriculture sector, as well as prescribes the crucial steps that must be taken to make the continent a top global food producer in the next decade. “Investing in agriculture is the best way to end hunger, malnutrition, and extreme poverty in Africa,” the report says.

“The Development Effectiveness Review is mission accomplished, as the AfDB sets out an even more ambitious agenda in its Feed Africa strategy to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2025,” says Simon Mizrahi, Director of Quality Assurance and Results Department that authored the Development Effectiveness Review on Agriculture.

By Olisemeka Obeche