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.
Most African countries rely on the two warring nations for their grain supplies.
Somalia, Benin, Egypt and Sudan top the list of countries that heavily rely on Russia and Ukraine, with more than 70% of their wheat coming from the two countries.
“The AfDB sees these increases in prices of wheat, maize and soya beans as potentially going to worsen food insecurity and raise inflation,” AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina said.
The multilateral lender says it will convene a meeting of finance and agriculture ministers in Africa to roll out that plan.
Through the fund, AfDB targets 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.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), at least 25 African countries import more than a third of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
In fact, for 15 of them, the share is more than half of their annual wheat consumption that comes from the two warring nations.
