Akinwumi Adesina, President of African Development Bank (AfDB) has revealed that they are currently working with the World Bank, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to raise $ 1 billion to improve agricultural technologies across Africa with the initiative tagged, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT).
Adesina stated this during a keynote speech delivered at the 2018 Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting held in Washington, D.C.
TAAT aims at bringing down some of the barriers preventing farmers from accessing the latest seed varieties and technologies to improve their productivity.
Adesina said with the pace of growth in the use of drones, automated tractors, artificial intelligence, robotics and blockchains, agriculture will change.
“It is more likely that the future farmers will be sitting in their homes with computer applications using drones to determine the size of their farms, monitor and guide the applications of farm inputs, and with a driverless combine harvesters bringing in the harvest.”
To help Africa transform its agriculture, the African Development Bank is investing US$24 billion over the next ten years to implement its Feed Africa Strategy.
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