…As World Food Prize honours 46 outstanding individuals***

The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina on Tuesday grieved that Africa is currently spending $35 billion annually on food imports, and stressed that this is not acceptable.

Adesina indicated this in his Norman Borlaug Lecture, delivered at Iowa State University, titled “Betting on Africa to Feed the World”, on Tuesday in Des Monies, Iowa in the United States.

“If the current trend continues, Africa is estimated to spend 110 billion dollars by 2030 on food imports”, the AfDB Boss stated, stressing that the world must help Africa to rapidly modernise its agriculture and unlock its full potential.

Adesina said Africa held the key for feeding nine billion people by 2050, adding that more than ever before

the challenge of addressing global food security is the greatest in Africa.

He, therefore, called for land tax for unused agricultural land, to provide incentives for faster commercialisation of agriculture and unlocking its potential in Africa.

He said that close to 300 million were malnourished on the continent due to this challenge.

According to him, Africa is the only region of the world where its proportion of the population that is food insecure is on the increase.

“There is therefore absolutely no reason for Africa to be a food importing region. Africa has huge potential in agriculture, but, as Dr. Borlaug used to say, nobody eats potential.

“Unlocking that potential, we must start with the Savannah of Africa which covers mind boggling 600 million hectares of which 400 million hectares are cultivable.

“Africa sits on 65 per cent of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, so what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world.

“African farmers need more than a helping hand. They need a policy lift,” Adesina said.

The President paid tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug, whom the lecture series was named after.

Adesina said that Africa was the last frontier for the late Borlaug, the Founder of the World Food Prize who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world.

The president said that in spite of the progress globally in food production including Africa, Latin America and Asia, the world still had 700 million people languishing in extreme poverty.

“This includes 800 million with chronic hunger, two billion people with micronutrient deficiency and 150 million children under five years of age that are suffering from stunting.

“The challenge of feeding the world is immense, with need for rapid increases in global food, feed and biofuel production to feed a global population of nine billion people by 2050.

“If Dr. Borlaug alone can feed one billion people, we definitely can feed 800 million people globally and we definitely can feed 300 million Africans,” he said.

Adesina said that to transform agriculture, Africa needs to make a decision to develop new agrarian systems, one that combines smallholder farmers with a new dynamic generation of medium and large commercial farmers.

He advocated for land tenure systems that made it easier to get access to land and for smallholder farmers and their communities to have secure land rights.

The president said that a top priority must be to mechanise agriculture in Africa.

According to him, over 1,200 people from more than 65 countries will address cutting edge issues related to global food security and nutrition at the 2017 Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in October 18-20.

The former Minister of Agriculture has been nominated to receive the World Food Prize Laureate during the events.

In the meantime, Mr Nicole Barreca, Director, Communications and Events, World Food Prize (WFP), said on Tuesday that WFP had honored 46 outstanding individuals who made vital contributions to the programme throughout the world.

Barreca said that the WFP three-day conferencein Iowa, U.S., would begin from Wednesday  to Friday in Iowa, United States of America.

He that this year’s Borlaug Dialogue would be held at the Downtown Marriott Hotel in Des Moines.

Barreca said that the WFP conference would bring together international leaders, policy makers, farmers, executives from agribusiness,scientific, academic and development experts to address critical issues facing global food security in the world.

WFP was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman Borlaug, recipient of the Noble Food Prize.

According to him, The WFP annually hosts the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium and variety of youth education programmes.

He said the essence of this was to help further the discussion on cutting edge global food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.

Barreca said that the laureate award ceremony was schedule to hold on Thursday.

” This year’s laureate, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, will be honored and officially awarded the World Food Prize,”Barreca said.

He said that the WFP global Youth Institute would also hold at the DuPont Pioneer on Friday.

Each year, more than 200 exceptional high school students and their teachers from across the United States and other countries are selected to participate in the WFP Global Youth Institute.

“At this inspiring event, the next generation will be present and will discuss their solutions to global food security challenges.

“With a faculty panel of international experts and their peers, connects with other students from around the world, tours will take them to cutting edge industrial and research facilities.

WFP is the foremost international award recognising the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.