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The donation will help increase productivity and agricultural production in the Central African Republic. The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved, on July 15 in Abidjan, a donation of 5.39 million US dollars to the Central African Republic. The money will help produce 32,000 additional tons of food products (rice, maize and cassava) and strengthen food security for 100,000 people. It will also help the Central African Republic to implement an emergency food program to deal with the soaring food prices amplified by the war between Russia and Ukraine. Africa and the rest of the world are dealing with the effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has caused food prices to soar. The prices of wheat, maize and soybeans in particular experienced dizzying increases, raising fears of a major food crisis on the African continent, due to the dependence of many countries on the import of foodstuffs from the two countries. In order to deal with this eventuality, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group set up on May 20, 2022, a $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility. The facility provides agricultural seeds to 20 million producers on the continent. The varieties concerned are wheat, corn, rice and soybeans. The goal is to produce an additional 38 million tons of food over the next two years, worth $12 billion. “The war in Ukraine has aggravated the impacts linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and to the political and security situation in the Central African Republic. The grant that the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group approved today responds to the pressing needs of many vulnerable households in rural areas,” said Mamady Souaré, Country Manager of the Bank Group in the Central African Republic. . According to him, the donation will make seeds and fertilizers available to farmers to boost food production and thus improve food security in the Central African Republic. The grant comes from Pillar I of the Transition Support Facility, an operationally autonomous entity of the African Development Bank Group. It has a fast, simple and flexible disbursement mechanism designed to help countries consolidate peace, build resilient institutions, stabilize their economies and lay the foundations for inclusive growth.

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