The African Development Bank calls for scale-up in the agricultural sector, partnerships and affordable access to fertilizers at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit

This week, the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) will join its deep expertise and strengths to highlight the critical role of agricultural technologies, fertilizers and healthy soils in driving sustainable agricultural growth at the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi .

Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, Chairman of the Bank Group and Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, will lead a delegation of agriculture, agribusiness, fertilizer and partnership specialists to the summit. The event will explore solutions to the widespread deterioration of soil quality in agricultural land and build consensus on an African action plan for fertilizers and soil health. The summit will also adopt an African Union Commission initiative to improve the health and productivity of African soils.

More than 1,500 participants from across Africa, including heads of state and ministers, are expected to attend.

Dunford will speak at a side event titled “Dakar 2 – the state of African fertilizers and soil health: policy, governance and institutional framework to accelerate rural food and agriculture supply pacts.” Organized by the Leadership for Agriculture network, a partnership of the African Development Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, the session will bring together representatives from agriculture ministries, the private sector and other stakeholders to highlight the successful efforts of Ethiopia and Mali scale up soil health interventions, increase crop productivity and strengthen rural livelihoods. It will promote the implementation of Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts to achieve food self-sufficiency, which stems from the Dakar 2 Feed Africa Summit held in January 2023.

Dunford will also deliver opening remarks at a side event on May 7 jointly hosted by the Bank Group, the African Union and the US Department of State. This side event, titled, Advancing the Soil Initiative for Africa through the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils will highlight the strategic and evolving relationship between the African Development Bank and the US-led Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), a movement to build resilient food systems based on diverse, nutritious and climate-adapted crops grown in healthy, fertile soils. VACS is in line with the Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) initiative. TAAT provides heat-tolerant, drought-resistant and other climate-friendly certified seeds to millions of African smallholder farmers to produce an additional 120 million tons of food in Africa and lift 130 million people out of poverty.

Other speakers at the side events include the African Union Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, and US Special Envoy for Food Safety, Dr. Cary Fowler.

Bank Director for Agricultural Finance and Rural Development, Richard Ofori-Mante and Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) Coordinator Marie Claire Kalihangabo will participate in the side event of the summit Finance, food and fertilizers: how the debt crisis is impacting Africa’s food and agricultural input markets. The session will focus on addressing the challenge of building resilience in food systems to financial shocks.

As part of its Feed Africa strategy to increase yields and build resilience, the African Development Bank wants to ensure African farmers have access to the inputs they need, including high-quality fertilizers and seeds.

Dr. Martin Fregene, the Bank’s Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry, said: “The importance of fertilizer financing in achieving our shared ambitions cannot be overstated. The Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit offers a new opportunity to achieve our collective goals of bridging the fertilizer supply gap in Africa and contributing to a thriving agricultural landscape.”

Dr. Fregene will speak at the Bank’s Dakar 2 themed event, as well as the Healthy Soils for Food System Transformation event. He will also present at another session organized by the Sasakawa Africa Foundation and the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Service Achieving resilient agro-food systems through regenerative agriculture in the wake of the global manure crisis and climate change.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media contact:
Alphonso Van Marsh, African Development Bank Group
email: [email protected]