AfDB wants to boost wheat production in Africa

To do without wheat imported from the Russian Federation, the African Development Bank (ADB) recently announced that it is preparing an accelerated plan of one billion dollars. To wean Africa off Russian wheat, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina is raising funds to help 40 million African farmers use climate-resilient technologies and increase their production of heat-tolerant wheat varieties. As a reminder, wheat is one of the four products exported by Russia and Ukraine. This food, like many others, is set to become more expensive around the world, as the BBC recently noted. “Commodity prices have soared due to supply disruptions caused by the Russian invasion, which has blocked the flow of grain and metals from the region,” the broadcaster noted. British in an article visible on its website.
It is also important to remember that “Russia and Ukraine both play a strategic role in international commodity markets,” BBC continued. Hence the looming crisis in these products and many others. According to Anadolu Agency, between 2018 and 2020, Africa imported USD 3.7 billion worth of wheat (32% of total African wheat imports) from the Russian Federation and USD 1.4 billion from from Ukraine (12% of total African wheat imports). Citing a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly, the same source indicates that “no less than 25 African countries import more than a third of their wheat from both countries and 15 of them import more than half”.
As a reminder, world wheat prices rose by 2.1% during the month of February 2022, according to data collected by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO). In a report covering this period, the international organization attributed this increase mainly to the uncertainties that reign over the flow of global supplies from the Black Sea ports. In its latest Cereal Supply and Demand Bulletin, published at the same time, which contains preliminary forecasts for world cereal production in 2022, the FAO also announced that world wheat production should increase and reach 790 million tons. The UN agency estimated that “the high yields expected and the large level of planted areas in North America and Asia should offset the slight decline expected in the European Union and the negative impact of drought on crops in some countries. of North Africa”.
A week later, the FAO warned of increases in world food prices that might vary between 8% and 20% in the wake of the war in Ukraine. As reported by the UN on its official website, “the conflict might lead to a sudden drop in wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine, while this cereal is the staple food for more than 35% of the world’s population”.
In an article, the United Nations explained that “the fear of the FAO comes from the fact that kyiv and Moscow are two of the heavyweights in the export of cereals, representing a third of exports and above all, of fertilizers used in the fields half the world”.