Akinwumi Adesina, the president of African Development Bank (AfDB), has been named the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate.
NAN reports that Adesina, whose name was selected on Monday in Washington DC, becomes the 46th recipient and the sixth African to be so honoured. The award ceremony would take place on October 19.
Announcing the new laureate, Kenneth Quinn, the president, The World Food Prize, The Hall of Laureates, described Adesina as “someone who grew out of poverty, but whose life mission is to lift up millions of people out of poverty”.
The prestigious $250,000 prize is given annually to a person who has worked to advance human development by “improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world”. Over a 31-year existence, the award has become known as the ‘Nobel prize’ for food and agriculture.
The announcement by Quinn was made at a ceremony held at the US department of agriculture, which was attended by US secretary of agriculture Sonny Perdue. Quinn said “These individuals have been at the fore-front of every major breakthrough in agriculture and food production in the last 30 years”.
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