"Ethiopia and AfDB ink $84.3 million grant agreement to enhance wheat production"

" Ethiopia and AfDB ink $84.3 million grant agreement to enhance wheat production \r\n\r\nThe African Development Bank Group has awarded grant funding totalling $84.3 million to Ethiopia to advance wheat production and increase farmers\u2019 incomes.\r\n\r\nEthiopia\u2019s Finance Minister Ahmed Shide and African Development Bank Group Deputy Director General for East Africa, Abdul Kamara, signed the grant agreement on 2 August 2023 for the implementation of the country\u2019s Climate Resilient Wheat Value Chain Development Project (CREW).\r\n\r\nThe grant comprises $54 million from the African Development Fund, the Bank Group\u2019s concessional lending window for low-income countries, $20 million from the Government of the Netherlands, $10 million from agribusiness firm OCP Africa, and $300,000 from the Global Center on Adaptation.\r\n\r\nThe Ethiopian government will contribute $10 million in counterpart funding for the project.\r\n\r\nThe project has three components: Climate Smart Wheat Productivity and Production; Market Infrastructure, Linkages, and Agri-Finance; and Project Coordination and Management.\r\n\r\nUnder its flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) initiative, the African Development Bank Group has supported Ethiopia and several other countries across the continent to boost productivity in agriculture.\r\n\r\nCREW was designed to scale up and sustain TAAT\u2019s successful results. The plan, which supports Ethiopia\u2019s wheat self-sufficiency initiatives, will be implemented over five years. The project will benefit 500,000 small-scale farmer households.\r\n\r\nIn his remarks during the signing, held in Addis Ababa, Kamara said: \u201cThe CREW Project will ensure that farmers in Ethiopia can access agricultural inputs to raise local production of wheat such that supply disruptions resulting from the Russia\u2014Ukraine crisis do not worsen the food security situation already made precarious by Covid-19, climate change and rising cost of living. It also seeks to sustain Ethiopia\u2019s exemplary strides in attaining wheat self-sufficiency and export orientation, a model that other African countries should emulate.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe added: \u201cThe signing of this grant demonstrates the Bank\u2019s unwavering commitment to supporting Ethiopia and its people, and further reaffirms the partnership between the Bank and the government towards achieving Ethiopia\u2019s vision of becoming a lower middle-income country by 2025.\u201d\r\n\r\nOn his part, the Minister of Finance, H.E. Ahmed Shide, lauded the Bank\u2019s support, underscoring that the project will accelerate and sustain the government\u2019s wheat self-sufficiency initiatives.\r\n\r\nEthiopia is the second largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. The country plans to become wheat self-sufficient and net exporter by 2025\/26, aiming to produce an additional 4.2 million tonnes of irrigated wheat by deploying proven technologies and innovations such as TAAT.\r\n\r\nThe grant brings the Bank\u2019s current commitment to Ethiopia to $1.23 billion, covering the key sectors of basic services, energy, transport, water supply and sanitation, agriculture and the private sector."

"Ethiopia and AfDB ink $84.3 million grant agreement to enhance wheat production"

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