Adesina wins $250,000 World Food Prize

Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), who has worked for two decades to transform agriculture in Africa, is the recipient of the 2017 World Food Prize.
 
Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB)
The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

Adesina is credited with significantly expanding food production in Nigeria, introducing initiatives to exponentially increase the availability of credit for smallholder farmers across Africa and galvanizing the political will to transform African agriculture.

“The selection of President Akinwumi Adesina as the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate reflects both his breakthrough achievements as minister of agriculture of Nigeria and his critical role in the development of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa,” said Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa.

“It also gives further impetus to his profound vision for enhancing nutrition, uplifting smallholder farmers and inspiring the next generation of Africans as they confront the challenges of the 21st century.”

Adesina’s selection was announced during ceremonies at the USDA headquarters in Washington Monday (June 26). The prize carries with it a hefty $250,000.


“An Africa that can feed itself – it’s a big vision,” said Dr. Adesina as he assumed the presidency of the African Development Bank. “Ten years is a sufficient amount of time to do that. It will require political will. It will require a lot of resources, a lot of commitment from private sector. But I think we have set the direction, and we’ve put the stakes in the ground. That one is critical. And I can’t forget what Norman Borlaug used to tell me. ‘Akin, go score some goals for African Agriculture.’”

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