News reaching Inside Resources now revealed that the Minister of Agriculture under President Goodluck Jonathan who is now the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has been named the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria NAN the former Minister of Agriculture was selected in Washington DC as the 46th recipient and the sixth in Africa to be conferred with such honored
Kenneth Quinn, the President, World Food Prize, Hall of Laureates, while announcing the new laureate, 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 award ceremony which would take place on October 19 was made public by Quinn at a ceremony held at the US department of agriculture, which was attended by US secretary of agriculture Sonny Perdue.
Quinn at the ceremony said “These individuals have been at the fore-front of every major breakthrough in agriculture and food production in the last 30 years”.
.
According to Quinn, Adesina had led the single greatest period of food production and hunger reduction in all human history.
.
According to him, nominations for the prize were submitted by organizations and prestigious individuals but a selection committee, made of individuals from around the world, makes the final decision.
.
Since its founding in 1986, the prize has honored 45 individuals for their outstanding contributions to food security around the world.
.
