The recording is an excerpt of African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) President Akinwumi Adesina's opening statement at the meeting of African Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Agriculture jointly organized by the African Union Commission and the African Development Bank Group on 19 May 2022. Its objective was to discuss the effects of the Russian war in Ukraine and its ramifications for food insecurity and food price inflation in Africa, and to agree on measures to be taken to avert a food crisis, discuss the African Emergency Food Production Plan, and policies needed to boost agriculture and transform the agricultural sector in Africa, to decouple it from these external shocks.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina says the African Emergency Food Production Facility will provide 20 million African smallholder farmers with certified seeds. It will increase access to agricultural fertilizers and enable them to rapidly produce 38 million tons of food. This is a $12 billion increase in food production in just two years

Listen to the soundbite: http://www.afdb.africa-newsroom.com/press/african-development-bank-president-akinwumi-adesina-says-the-african-emergency-food-production-facility-will-provide-20-million-african-smallholder-farmers-with-certified-seeds?lang=en

Download the soundbite: https://www.africa-newsroom.com/files/download/788b201a174716d.mp3

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).