Ukraine war: $1bn fund to avert African food crisis

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Ukraine war: $1bn fund to avert African food crisis

3:49 CAT | 18 Mar 2022

File photo: Lusa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) plans to raise $1bn (£759m) in a week’s time to support agricultural production in Africa and shield the continent from potential food shortages arising from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The UN says at least 15 African countries get more than half their wheat from the two warring nations. Somalia, Benin, Egypt and Sudan are the most dependent.

“The AfDB sees these increases in prices of wheat, maize and soya beans as potentially going to worsen food insecurity and raise inflation,” Akinwumi Adesina, the bank’s president, said.

The bank intends to organise a meeting of African finance and agriculture ministers to roll out that plan.

Through the fund, AfDB wants to increase production of wheat rice, maize and soya beans using climate-resilient technologies, including heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant crop varieties. The heat-tolerant wheat variety has already been trialled in Sudan and Ethiopia.

Source: BBC