Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank was announced as the winner of the 2017 World Food Prize. He is the 46th person and the sixth African to win the World Food Prize.
On June 26, 2017, the 2017 World Food Prize announcement ceremony took place at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This year represents the 31th anniversary of the establishment of the World Food Prize by the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug.
Jason Hafemeister, acting U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs presided over the World Food Prize Laureate Announcement Ceremony. He shared that “it is a great honor to host today’s announcement as so many of USDA’s objectives are written into the World Food Prize DNA.”
Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation, announced that Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank was the winner of the 2017 World Food Prize. He is the 46th person and the sixth African to win the World Food Prize.
In his remarks, Ambassador Quinn shared, “Our Laureate, having grown up in poverty himself, learned the critical value of education. Having attained a college degree in his home county and then graduate degrees from Purdue University, our Laureate embarked on a journey to use his academic training to as he said, “lift up millions of people out of poverty, especially farmers in rural Africa. Dr. Adesina has been a bold visionary and leader for Africa thus being known as ‘Africa’s Norman Borlaug,’ and the “farmer’s Minister.” His breakthrough achievements are evident “through his roles over the past two decades with the Rockefeller Foundation, at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and as Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria. Dr. Adesina has been at the forefront of galvanizing political 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.”
The Hon. Sonny Perdue, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture delivered the keynote address where he applauded the selection of Dr. Adesina. Secretary Perdue stated that Dr. Adesina built up the political will to transform African agriculture and he knows our work is not done and like us, he wants to “do right and feed everyone.”
Dr. Adesina will receive $250,000 prize for driving change in African agriculture for over 25 years and improving food security for millions across the continent. The World Food Prize will be formally presented to Dr. Adesina in a ceremony to be held at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 19, 2017. The 2017 Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium will be held from October 18-20, 2017 in Des Moines, IA and the theme this year is: “The Road out of Poverty.”
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA) looks forward to attending and participating in this year’s symposium. The Director General of IICA, Dr. Victor Villalobos will participate as a moderator of a high-level panel entitled “Latin America’s catalytic role in global food security: The intricate links between conservation, trade and agricultural productivity.”
- Registration for the Borlaug Dialogue is now open: www.worldfoodprize.org/register.
- Read more about the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate
- World Food Prize Press Release
*This post appears in the IICA Delegation in the USA Newsletter – May – June 2017
