Arlington, Virginia, Usa — President of the African Development Bank and 2017 World Food Prize Laureate, Akinwumi Adesina, will be the Distinguished Speaker at the 2018 US Agricultural Outlook Forum, to be held from February 22-23, 2018, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.

Now in its 94th year, the Agricultural Outlook Forum is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's largest annual meeting, attracting as many as 2,000 attendees from the U.S. and abroad.

The Forum highlights key issues and topics within the agricultural community, offering a platform for conversation among producers, processors, policymakers, government officials, and non-governmental organizations, both foreign and domestic.

The theme for this year's Forum is "The Roots of Prosperity."

According to Sonny Perdue ,U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, "This gathering of leaders in agriculture is part of the USDA's commitment to maximize the ability of the men and women of America's agriculture and agribusiness sector to create jobs, to produce and sell the foods and fiber that feed and clothe the world, and to give them every opportunity to prosper,"

As part of his mission to the United States, President Adesina will hold bilateral meetings with top officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other national and multinational corporations.

The Forum aligns with the Feed Africa Strategy through which the Bank is accelerating agricultural development with planned investment of US $24 billion over the next 10 years.

The Bank is also championing a campaign for new technologies and the scaling up of existing technologies for Africa's agriculture transformation.