The African Development Bank is looking to source about 500,000 tonnes of fertiliser for West Africa by the end of August as an emergency stopgap to avert a food crisis, a source with direct knowledge of the matter has told the Reuters news agency.
The move is part of the bank’s announced allocation of $1.5bn to shore up the continent’s food production and help with fertiliser due to the disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, Reuters reported on Friday.
Akinwumi Adesina, its president, told Al Jazeera in April that the price of urea, a low-cost fertiliser, has gone up by 300 percent. “It’s [the war] driving inflation in Africa, and it could — if not quickly well-managed — trigger a food crisis in Africa,” he said.
