AfDB to Boost Food Production in Africa with Smart Technologies

The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a flagship programme of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has announced plans to boost Africa’s food production by producing 100 million tonnes of food every year through the deployment and the use of smart agricultural technologies.

The move, according to the multilateral agency, is expected to cut food import by half, noting that Africa currently imports about N47 billion worth of food with hopes that an additional hundred million tonnes of food will cut food import by 50 per cent.

Speaking at AfDB’s maiden edition of TAAT investors forum in African agriculture targeted to boost food production and sufficiency in the continent that was held virtually in Abidjan, Cote D’ Ivoire, the Director, Agriculture and Agro-Industry, AfDB, Mr. Martin Fregene, observed that TAAT is the focus of the bank’s number two priority which is Feed Africa, even as he described it as a bold and ambitious effort to raise food production on the continent by hundred million tonnes of food every year through reaching forty million farmers with the best available production technologies to double their yields.