President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, will lead a Bank delegation to the World Food Prize 2018 edition taking place in Iowa, U.S. The Bank will participate in various events to showcase its Technologies for Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) and other key initiatives.

The Bank recently launched TAAT, a US$1 billion initiative to rapidly scale up agricultural technologies. The initiative brings together all of the CGIAR centers in Africa to focus on scaling up agricultural technologies and building agricultural value chains, and doing so along agro-ecological zones.

President Adesina was in October last year recognized as the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate for exponentially increasing the availability of credit for smallholder farmers across the African continent. 

The World Food Prize is a week-long set of events drawing over 1,000 participants from over 50 countries. In addition to the Laureate Award Ceremony, the World Food Prize series of events include the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, Global Youth Institute for high school students, Iowa Hunger Summit; Laureate Lecture Series, Presentation of the Dr. Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation.

In partnership with Purdue University, the Bank last month organized the Scale Up Conference. The outcome of the conference will also form part of discussions at the 2018 World Food Prize events.

The theme of the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue, “Rise to the Challenge,” explores the massive effort to feed 9.5 billion people expected by 2050. The world’s undefined ability to feed the projected population requires the attention of problem-solvers across stakeholder groups.

Failing to meet this challenge will impact the entire world population, not just the hungry. The ability to access adequate nutrition is as much at stake as the ability to access adequate amount of calories. Rising poverty coupled with deepening health and disease concerns could devastate the world as a whole. Unsustainable farming practices threaten our environment with increased pollution, resource depletion, and loss of biodiversity. The risk of conflict powered by hunger and resource scarcity skyrockets. 

A session on African Youth Rising to the Challenge’: Bringing together key global partners contributing to Africa's Transformation will be hosted by the Bank, the Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bayer Corporation, AATF, RUFORUM, Iowa State University, Michigan State University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This side event will bring together global universities and private sector companies that responded to last year’s call for supporting the training of the African Youth in agriculture through the ENABLE Youth program and other initiatives.

About the African Development Bank Group

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is Africa’s premier development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). On the ground in 44 African countries with an external office in Japan, the AfDB contributes to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.afdb.org