Kenyan farmers to gain from AfDB’s Sh174.95b emergency food facility

PRODUCTION:

Kenyan farmers will be among 20 million African growers to benefit from African Development Bank (AfDB) $1.5 billion (Sh174.95 billion) emergency production facility to tackle the food crisis sparked by the Russian-Ukraine conflict.

The African Emergency Food Production Facility approved by board of directors last week will help smallholder farmers access certified seeds and fertilisers to enable them rapidly produce 38 million tonnes of food.

Akinwumi Adesina, the bank’s president said the continent’s food import bill has increased since Russia attacked Ukraine, adding that most of the countries rely on food imports, for example wheat, seed oil from the Asia continent.

“With the disruption of food supplies arising from the Russia-Ukraine war, Africa now faces a shortage of at least 30 million metric tonnes of food, especially wheat, maize, and soybeans mostly imported from both countries,” he said in a statement by the bank.

The statement said African farmers urgently need high-quality seeds and inputs before the planting season begins in May to immediately boost food supplies.

The move by the bank comes at a time most house holds in Africa face high food prices, a situation worsened by declining stocks and depressed purchasing power. In Kenya, a 2kg packet of wheat is currently retailing at between Sh180 and Sh200 in the local supermarkets outlets and over Sh200 in the estates and rural areas.

The emergency food production package comes as the bank gathers in the Ghanaian capital of Accra for its 2022 Annual Meetings this week.

Delegates are expected to take stock of the bank’s projects, which have impacted the lives of 335 million Africans in the last five years, while looking ahead to new challenges and opportunities.

Economic impacts

Overcoming Africa’s challenges includes building back from Covid-19. Early in the pandemic, the bank provided a crisis response facility of up to $10 billion to African countries to help overcome its social and economic impacts.

It also launched a $3 billion Covid-19 social bond on the global capital markets, at the time, the highest ever US dollar-denominated social bond providing social protection to about 30 million vulnerable people.

Adesina said: “Our rapid Covid-19 response facility helped stabilize African economies. It helped train 130,000 health workers, and provided advisory support for 300,000 small and medium sized businesses.”