AfDB to invest $120 million to boost cassava and others

The African Development Bank (AfDB) today said it will invest $120 million in the next 2-3 years to boost the productivity and transform cassava and other eight other commodities on the continent. The nine commodities include: cassava, rice, maize, sorghum/millet, wheat, livestock, aquaculture, high iron beans and orange fleshed sweet potatoes.

“Transforming cassava on the African continent would help African nations to cut imports and redirect about $1.2bn into African domestic economies,” the Director for Agriculture at AfDB, Dr Martin Fregene said at the Fourth International Conference on Cassava, organized by the Global Cassava Partnerships for the 21^st Century, GCP21, in Cotonou, Republic of Benin on Monday.

The cassava conference was attended by more than 450 local and international partners in the cassava sector, coming from research and development organizations, government, farming community, and the private sector.

The bank’s investment in cassava comes at a time when African governments are scaling up efforts to end food imports and create wealth.