Africa (Commonwealth) _ The Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers (CGIAR) and the African Development Bank Group pledged to expand their partnership in order to boost food production and improve nutrition for Africa’s expanding population.
The African Development Bank reckons that Africa can sustain herself as well as entire world with 65% of the world’s arable land remaining uncultivated.
At the bank’s headquarters in Abidjan on Thursday, African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina met with Director Generals of CGIAR located in Africa to discuss strategies for increasing food and agricultural productivity throughout the continent.
The goals of CGIAR centers, which are dispersed throughout African nations, are to improve natural resources and ecosystem services, decrease poverty, and improve food and nutrition security. In the same way that their counterparts in Southeast Asia and Latin America are crucial to accelerate agricultural expansion and food self-sufficiency, they are essential to establishing food security on the continent.
The visit by the four directors, General/Regional directors and the deputy director general of CGIAR for Africa as a funding partner on Thursday was their first scheduled group visit to Africa. It took place two days after Dr. Adesina received a visit from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who commended the bank for the remarkable work that it is doing to help Africa feed itself and the rest of the world.
The leaders concentrated on obtaining long-term funding for research projects and improving the CGIAR’s efficacy throughout the continent. They also talked about enhancing the ability of young scientists and extension agents, private-sector seed producers, and national agricultural research services partners situated in the nation to generate certified seeds.
In order to make the CGIAR’s work more applicable and long-lasting in Africa, the Bank was instrumental in the reformation process.
Dr. Adesina, the president of the Bank, expressed his satisfaction with the CGIAR’s changes and stated that we must make sure the organization is held responsible for the outcomes, which must be large-scale. Millions of African farmers must be equipped with technology as we work to realize the continent’s agricultural potential. CGIAR plays a key role in that.
He declared, “I have made agriculture vital to our continent’s future and to the mission of this bank.” Dr. Adesina continued, saying that the African Development Bank may think about integrating CGIAR into its long-term financing program to the following nations, subject to board of directors approval:
Leaders of the CGIAR are more suited to collaborate with national institutions to address climate change, boost productivity, and improve food security since they have local networks, expertise, and knowledge.
The Bank is eager to collaborate with the consortium in order to increase the scope of its work on developing young farmers’ and scientists’ capacities.
The group stated that they were willing to support the Bank’s member nations in the area in putting the conclusions of the Dakar 2 Food Summit into practice. The Bank, the African Union, and the Senegalese government organized the summit together. 34 leaders of state and government, 75 ministers, and leaders of development partners attended the summit in January 2023. It has so far raised nearly $70 billion in an extraordinary worldwide endeavor.
Dr. Simeon Ehui, the director general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the CGIAR’s regional director for Continental Africa, led the team and stated that the African Development Bank has long been a technology partner of the CGIAR. We have no doubt that the funding from the African Development Bank will persist and grow.
Dr. Baboucarr Manneh, the Director General of the AfricaRice Center and the CGIAR Regional Director for West and Central Africa, praised the African Development Bank for its ongoing provision of rice-based farmer technology to the organization:
In many African nations, rice output has increased as a result of the Bank’s backing for the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) cultivars. He stated that we currently have more than two million hectares of rice.
Dr. Manneh said, “The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Rice Compact, which has significantly improved food productivity in many of the continent’s countries, is another way that the Bank has supported AfricaRice.”
A tried-and-true method for scaling up technology is TAAT. It is producing notable outcomes for maize in Kenya and southern Africa and wheat in Ethiopia and Sudan. The president of the African Development Bank declared that the bank intends to implement phase III of TAAT after the success of phases I and II.
The $650 million Regional West Africa Rice Development (REWARD) initiative was recently introduced in 15 West African nations by the African Development Bank and the AfricaRice Center. One million farmers will participate in the initiative, working up to 750,000 hectares of land to produce 53 million tons of rice over the course of five years.
Aly Abousabaa, the Director General of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the Regional Director for Central and West Asia and North Africa, CGIAR, discussed the difficulties faced by the North as a result of increasing temperatures. He described how his organization is experimenting with a ground-breaking rain induction technique to assist farmers in raising yields.
Siboniso Moyo, Deputy Director General at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) for Research and Development – Livestock Genetics and Feeds, emphasized the significance of raising livestock productivity in Africa and the mutually beneficial relationship between crops and livestock in order to guarantee that animals receive high-quality feed.
Dr. Eliane Ubalijoro, CEO of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR), discussed the vital role trees play in enhancing soil health. Additionally, we wish to give financing for agriculture top priority and reform smallholder farmers in order to increase food security, enhance nutrition, and improve biodiversity.
