2017 Nobel Prize for food and agriculture goes to AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina

The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, has been named the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate.

Adesina, whose name was selected on Monday in Washington, D.C, becomes the 46th recipient and the sixth African to be honoured.

The award ceremony will take place October 19.

Announcing the new Laureate, Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, the President of the World Food Prize Foundation, described Adesina as “someone who grew out of poverty, but whose life mission is to lift up millions of people out of poverty’’.

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.

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.

Since its founding in 1986, the Prize has honoured 45 individuals for their outstanding contributions to food security around the world.

In attendance were some past awardees, Nigeria’s former minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Nigeria’s acting ambassador to the US and chargé d‘affaires, Hakeem Balogun.

Adesina was the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.