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Nigeria: Local Agric Economist Honoured
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Leadership (Abuja)
16 April 2008
Posted to the web 16 April 2008
Abuja
A Nigerian, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has been honoured in Norway and the U.S. for his leadership of a major global initiative to reduce poverty and achieve an African green revolution.
Adesina, an agricultural development expert, is the vice-president, policy and partnerships of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
AGRA said in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Abuja that Akinwumi was recently honoured by Purdue University, US, for his efforts to improve agricultural productivity in Africa.
"Working in tandem with former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who chairs the AGRA Board, and with Dr. A. Namanga Ngongi, president of AGRA, Adesina is leading a dynamic partnership working across the African continent.
"The aim is to help millions of small-scale farmers lift themselves out of poverty and hunger," the statement said.
It said that AGRA was committed to continuing academic excellence through the support of agricultural PhD programmes in African universities.
Such programmes, it said, were essential to developing the calibre of leadership needed for Africa's Green Revolution.
It said the honour by Purdue followed Adesina's 2007 award of the prestigious "Yara Prize" for an African Green Revolution awarded in Oslo.
The Yara prize recognised Adesina's pioneering work to increase poor farmers' access to farm inputs and to build rural markets.
Adesina, whose dream is to eliminate poverty in Africa, dedicated the 100,000-dollar-prize to setting up the Africa Agrodealer Prize.
He said the annual prize will recognise entrepreneurial rural businesses that are serving poor smallholder farmers, adding: "These are the real heroes", According to the statement, Adesina helped to design the landmark Africa Fertiliser Summit.
More than 40 Heads of State and governments committed themselves to bold initiatives to improve the supply, demand and environmentally efficient use of organic and inorganic fertilisers, it said.
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He also pioneered the establishment of agro-dealer networks, leading to thousands of village retailers, now selling improved seed, fertiliser and other agricultural inputs to farmers in remote rural areas, the statement added.(NAN)
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