The president of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, is the 2017 winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize for his two decades of work expanding food production on the continent through policy reforms, financial innovation, and modern farming practices. The award, which was announced by the Iowa foundation that sponsors it, is known as the Nobel Prize of food and agriculture. It is the creation of Norman Borlaug, who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize as the father of the Green Revolution, which saved millions of people from starvation.
“Adesina has been at the forefront of galvanizing public will to transform African agriculture through initiatives to expand agricultural production, thwart corruption in the Nigerian fertilizer industry, and exponentially increase the availability of credit for smallholder farmers across the African continent,” said the World Food Prize Foundation, describing Adesina’s career at the Rockefeller Foundation, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and as Nigeria’s agriculture minister.
Borlaug, an Iowa farm boy, bred higher-yielding, disease-resistant dwarf varieties of wheat that helped prevent famine in Asia in the 1960s as the world population boomed after World War II. His “miracle wheat” was followed by “miracle rice” that doubled or tripled yields.
Adesina has been described as the Borlaug of Africa, said the World Food Prize Foundation, because he promoted the use of improved seeds and fertilizer, greater investment in agriculture, and increased access for farmers to credit. “Adesina came to strongly believe that unless fertilizer use gained traction in African countries on a wide scale, the farmers in those countries would never see an improvement in yields nor in their livelihoods,” said the prize foundation.
Agriculture is a leading employer in many African countries and is seen as a springboard for economic growth.
In 2006, Adesina was the lead organizer the African Fertilizer Summit, which led to creation of AGRA. Kenneth Quinn, president of the Food Prize Foundation, said the fertilizer summit catalyzed the political will to bring the Green Revolution to the continent.
While high-yielding crops are the hallmark of the Green Revolution, fertilizer and pesticides are important components. There have been backlashes against the approach as unduly expensive for small farmers and environmentally damaging. Some critics say organic and low-input farming are better suited to African conditions. Proponents say low grain yields lock farmers into poverty and jeopardize the food supply. They say that with more careful use of fertilizer and water and integrated pest management, yields can rise while water and chemical use declines.
Adesina, who was born to a poor family in Nigeria, has been president of the African Development Bank since 2015 and is the first person with an agricultural background to head a regional development bank. Told by his father that education was a “leveler” and a way out of poverty, Adesina became a standout scholar and earned a doctorate in agricultural economics at Purdue.
After Purdue, he worked for 10 years in the network of international agricultural research centers known as CGIAR and helped launch new rice varieties in Nigeria that made the country self-sufficient in the staple grain. As a Rockefeller Foundation official based in Zimbabwe, Adesina initiated the agro-dealer concept that recruited small village shopkeepers as seed and fertilizer dealers who also advised farmers on how to improve yields.
The World Food Prize will be awarded formally on Oct. 19 during a weeklong symposium on global food issues in Des Moines. The symposium coincides with World Food Day, observed annually on Oct. 16.
“We all have a challenge. Dr. Adesina knows our work is not done,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, pointing to estimates that the world population, now 7.6 billion, will zoom to 8.6 billion by 2030 and 9.8 billion by mid-century.
To read a biography of Adesina, click here.