The African Development Bank (AFDB) has awarded a grant of $84.2 million to improve farmers incomes through wheat production in Ethiopia.
The funding, provided under the Resilient Wheat Value Chain Development Project (CREW), comprises $54 million from the African Development Fund and $20 million from the Government of the Netherlands.
It also includes $10 million from the agribusiness firm OCP Africa, $300,000 from the Global Center on Adaption, and $10 million in counterpart funding from the Ethiopian government for the project.
The project is made up of three components that include climate-smart wheat productivity and production, market infrastructure, linkages, agri-finance, and project coordination and management.
In a statement, the AFDB said an agreement was signed on August 2, 20223, in Addis Ababa by Ahmed Shide, Minister for Finance, Ethiopia, and Abdul Kamara, African Development Bank Group Director for East Africa, for the implementation of the country’s Climate Resilient Wheat Value Chain Development Project (CREW).
Under the Bank’s flagship Technologies for Agriculture Transformation Initiative (TAAT) project, Ethiopia and several other countries have been supported across the continent to boost productivity in agriculture.
The CREW project, according to the Bank, would be implemented over a five-year period to benefit 500,000 small-scale farmer households.
The statement noted the project was also designed to scale up and sustain TAAT’s successful results, which supported Ethiopia’s wheat self-sufficiency project.
At the signing event, Abdul Kamara, African Development Bank Group Director for East Africa, said the project was aimed at building resilience in wheat production against supply disruptions associated with the Russia-Ukraine crises, climate change, and rising costs of living.
“It also seeks to sustain Ethiopia’s exemplary strides in attaining wheat self-sufficiency and export orientation, a model that other African countries should emulate,’’ he said.
Abdul Kamara added, “The signing of the agreement for this grant demonstrates the Bank’s unwavering commitment to support Ethiopia and its people and further reaffirms the partnership between the Bank and the government towards achieving the country’s vision of becoming a lower-middle income country.”
On his part, Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance, Ethiopia, praised the Bank’s support, underscoring that the project would accelerate and sustain the government’s wheat sufficiency initiative.
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