The President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said plans are underway to launch $800 million scheme to support the agriculture sector. Adesina said the initiative called the Technology for African Agriculture Transformation (TAAT) was part of efforts designed to encourage technological innovation in the sector.
The AfDB president spoke during the opening of the African Economic Conference (ACE) organised by the bank in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in Abuja. He said when the scheme is implemented, it would reach 40 million farmers in one year. He added that another $24 billion would be used to support Nigeria agric sector to fight hunger and post-harvest loses.
He said: “To take new agricultural technologies to scale, we are launching $800m initiative known as TAAT. It has a goal of reaching over 40 million farmers in 10 years. We must equally reduce the food system losses along the value-chain from the farm, transport, storage, processing and marketing.”