Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, has been
\nnamed the winner of this year\u2019s World Food Prize.<\/p>\n
The prestigious U.S.$250,000 prize is given annually to a person who has
\nworked to advance human development by \u201cimproving the quality, quantity or
\navailability of food in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
Over a 31-year existence, the award has become known as the \u2018Nobel Prize\u2019
\nfor food and agriculture.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s announcement by the president of the World Food Prize, Kenneth
\nQuinn, was made at a ceremony held at the U.S. Department of Agriculture
\nattended by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue. Since its
\nfounding in 1986, the Prize has honoured 45 individuals for their
\noutstanding contributions to food security around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individuals have been at the forefront of every major breakthrough
\nin agriculture and food production in the last 30 years\u201d, Mr. Quinn told
\nAllAfrica in a telephone interview before Monday\u2019s announcement. He said
\nthe laureates have led the \u201csingle greatest period of food production and
\nhunger reduction in all human history\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nominations for the prize, he said, are submitted by organizations and
\nprestigious individuals. A selection committee \u2013 made of individuals from
\naround the world \u2013 makes the decision.<\/p>\n
Mr. Quinn announced that the committee noted a couple of \u201cdistinct
\nachievements\u201d of Mr. Adesina: his role in organizing and making the
\nAfrican fertilizer summit a \u201cgreat success\u201d; his work with leading
\nnon-profit organizations and banks to expand the availability of
\ncommercial credits to agriculture and farmers across the continent when he
\nwas a senior executive of the Alliance of Green Revolution of Africa; the
\ndigital e-wallet scheme during his five-year tenure as minister of
\nagriculture of Nigeria, which helped tackle corruption that had pervaded
\nthe fertilizer industry.<\/p>\n
Mr. Quinn said Mr. Adesina has helped galvanize support to transform
\nagriculture on the continent through his various initiatives which
\nincreased farmers\u2019 yield and incomes. \u201cAll of his policies were very
\nfarmer friendly, and he became known as the \u2018farmer\u2019s minister’\u201d. The
\ncommittee was also \u201ctaken\u201d by Adesina\u2019s own life that began with him
\ngrowing up in a poor village, and how education \u201callowed him to lift
\nhimself up,\u201d Mr. Quinn said.<\/p>\n
The AfDB president came from a family of farmers. With some education,
\nhowever, his dad got a job as a civil servant which provided the means to
\nsend his four sons to school. Adesina, the second, experienced the poverty
\nof smallholder farmers and their families during his years of schooling in
\nthe village.<\/p>\n
Mr. Adesina told AllAfrica that he was thrilled when he first learned that
\nhe had been selected as this year\u2019s winner for the work he\u2019s done over the
\nyears.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for me it\u2019s not about the past as much as even the future; I feel
\ngreatly inspired and motivated to do even more until we free Africa and
\nthe world of hunger\u201d.<\/p>\n
He is excited about what lies ahead. \u201cI see a future where agriculture is
\ntreated as a business, not as a way of life; I see a continent in the next
\nten years that will be able to feed itself; I see a continent that will be
\nable to transform its rural economy from zones of misery to zones of
\neconomic prosperity; I see a continent that is able to end malnutrition\u201d.<\/p>\n
Since he became president, he said, the bank has committed itself to a
\nstrategy which aims to end hunger and rural poverty on the continent in
\nthe next decade. Feed Africa, the second of the AfDB\u2019s top five priorities
\nto which it has already committed $24 billion, was launched at its
\nheadquarters in Abidjan last year.<\/p>\n
Mr. Adesina said some of the areas of focus of the new plan will be \u201chow
\nto get technology to farmers \u2013 at the scale of millions of farmers all
\nacross Africa \u2013 and how to get the youth to be involved in agriculture as
\na business\u201d.<\/p>\n
He will be at the centre of attention this week in Des Moines, Iowa, where
\nguests from dozens of countries, including scientists, ministers, CEOs and
\nheads of NGOs will gather for a week of activities. He is scheduled to
\nspeak at various events including the \u201cBorlaug Dialogue\u201d, a symposium
\nwhich organisers say brings together 1,200 people from 65 countries, named
\nafter Norman Borlaug, the 1970 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who
\nconceived the idea of the World Food Prize.<\/p>\n
Mr. Adesina said he doesn\u2019t seek the spotlight: \u201cYou know you never work
\nfor recognition. I was just doing by job, which is to improve the lives of
\nfarmers,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s such a great honour for that work to be
\nrecognized for the impact it\u2019s having across the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
(This story was first published by AllAfrica.com. We have their permission
\nto republish).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, has been named the winner of this year\u2019s World Food Prize. The prestigious U.S.$250,000 prize is given annually to a person…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n