Against All Odds: Transforming African Agriculture

By Leon Hesser

This book is about the journey of Dr. Akinwumi Adesina and his mission to end poverty in Africa. Growing out of poverty and witnessing hardships of being poor, he set his life mission as giving hope to millions of the poor in rural Africa. A globally respected economist with decades of experience working in some of the worlds’ leading organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation and global agricultural research centers, Dr. Adesina’s work and passion continues to guide and shape global efforts on transforming Africa’s agriculture to create wealth for its farmers. As Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, he led bold reforms that cut out corruption and helped to lift over 15 million farmers out of poverty within four years.

Awarded the World Food Prize in 2017 for his work, Dr. Adesina is relentless and selfless, donating his $250,000 prize to support Africa’s youth to become global hunger fighters. As President of the African Development Bank - Africa’s premier development finance institution - Dr. Adesina is driving the Bank’s $25 billion investment to help Africa turn agriculture into wealth and achieve food security. The book is a palpable story of this man’s determination to help Africa feed itself, Against All Odds, following the footpath of his mentor, Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, the man who fed the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728315362

Leon Hesser

Dr. Leon Hesser, the author of this book, also wrote the biography of Dr. Norman Borlaug, The Man Who Fed the World, who created the World Food Prize.

Book preview

© 2019 Leon Hesser. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/04/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1538-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1537-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-1536-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908083

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

List of Acronyms

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

PART ONE

A Change Agent

Chapter 1 Humble Beginnings

Chapter 2 Moving on to the world stage

Chapter 3 The World Food Prize

Chapter 4 Norman Borlaug as an Inspiration

PART TWO

Transforming Nigeria’s Agriculture Sector

Chapter 5 Nigeria’s Lost Glory in World Trade

Chapter 6 The Vision: The Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA)

Chapter 7 Fighting against the odds

Chapter 8 Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES)

Chapter 9 Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZs)

Chapter 10 Key Policy Changes and Institutional Reform

Chapter 11 Developing Agricultural Commodity Value Chains

Rice Value Chain

Cassava Value Chain

Maize Value Chain

Cocoa Value Chain

Sorghum Value Chain

Cotton Value Chain

Oil Palm Value Chain

Wheat Value Chain

Horticulture Value Chain

Soybean Value Chain

Groundnut Value Chain

Ginger value chain

Cashew value chain

Sugarcane Value Chain

Shea Butter Value Chain

Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato Value Chain

Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chains

Dairy Value Chain

Beef Value Chain

Sheep and Goat Value Chain

Pig Value Chain

Poultry Value Chain

Leather Value Chain

Chapter 12 Cross-cutting Value Chains

Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services

Agricultural Mechanization Program

Animal Health

Chapter 13 Cross-Cutting Themes of the ATA

Youth and Gender

Nutrition Transformation Value Chain

Climate Change and the Environment

Chapter 14 Financing Agriculture

Chapter 15 Private Sector Investments

Chapter 16 Summary of Key Results and Achievements of the ATA

PART THREE

Leveraging the successes in Nigeria across Africa: The Feed Africa Strategy

Chapter 17 Scaling up ATA’s Success across Africa

Chapter 18 Building political Support across Africa and Development of the Feed Africa Strategy

Chapter 19 Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT)

Chapter 20 Conclusion

Appendix 1

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List of Acronyms

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Acknowledgements

Writing the biography of Dr Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, has been a pleasant, but herculean, task. A wide range of information, data, images, documentaries, reports and revisions from several individuals and sources was gathered, analyzed, validated, and re-written to produce the final version of the book. I am deeply indebted to a number of people without whose support and assistance this book could not have been written.

I am especially indebted to Dr Martin Fregene, Chief Technical Adviser to Dr Adesina when he was Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and currently Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department at the African Development Bank; and Professor Sule Ochai, Senior Technical Adviser on Food and Agricultural Policy to Dr Adesina, and currently a Senior Agricultural Policy Consultant at the African Development Bank, who helped coordinate the information gathering and processing required for publication of the book. Ms. Karen Tibbo, a freelance writer who had earlier produced documentaries on Nigeria’s Growth Enhancement Support, a core component of Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda during Akin’s tenure as Minister, also contributed sections on commodity value chains as well as some sections of the Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy.

Mrs Grace Adesina, the beloved wife of President Adesina, worked behind the scene to ensure the historical importance of the book. She painstakingly searched and provided critical historical and landmark photos of the family. Dr. Victor Oladokun, Director of Communication and External Relations at the African Development Bank, did extensive editing of the book and wrote the last chapter, Conclusion. Mr. Kunle Badejo provided pictures of Dr. Adesina during his time as Minister of Agriculture.

President Adesina took time out of his very busy schedule to respond to my questionnaire and telephone interviews. I am so thankful, Mr. President. I am also so grateful to Mr Olajide Oyewusi, Personal Assistant to President Adesina, who at various times provided the ‘access code’ to Dr. Adesina.

Many farmers, seed and fertilizer company executives, millers, bankers, civil servants, researchers and agribusinesses lent their voices to give credence to the achievements of Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation in Voices from the Field. There are too many to be acknowledged individually due to space limitation. Prominent among these are: His Excellency President Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria 2010 – 2015; Governor Ibikunle Amosun, former Governor of Ogun State; Captain Idris Wada, former Governor of Kogi State; Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, CEO of Umza rice mills; Tunji Owoeye, CEO of Elephant Group; Richard-Mark Mbaram, CEO AgroNigeria; and Dr George Mavrotas, Senior Fellow, Nigeria Strategy Support Program, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Abuja. Others include Mr Bolaji Akinboro, Chief of Party and CEO of Cellulant, the operator of the E-wallet platform for input subsidies; Ayodeji Balogun, CEO of AFEX Commodity Exchange; Alhaji Olumuyiwa Azeez, Director at FMARD; Mr Nijdda Tumba, Hulhude International Agro-dealers; Dr Temitope Aroge, CEO of Arog Bio Allied Agro Services Limited; Abdullahi Zira, Agro-dealer, Gali Global Concept; Olu Ajakaiye, Research Professor of Economics and Executive Chairman of African Center for Shared Development and Capacity Building; and Dr Adetunji Oredipe, Senior Agricultural Economist at the World Bank who also served as Senior Technical Adviser to Dr Adesina in his first two years as Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria.

I owe especial appreciation to my entire family, including especially my lifelong partner, Florence Hesser, for constant support and encouragement while I was writing the book.

Since it is not possible to list all the individuals, organizations and institutions that supported this exciting endeavor, I wish to express my general appreciation and gratitude — a Big Thanks to You All!

Leon Hesser

September 2019

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Foreword

I first met Dr. Akin Adesina in the early 2000s as we traveled around Africa visiting farmers and families. Then as now, I am struck by the genuine and powerful ways he has committed his life to Africa’s growth and development. I first got to know him in his role as a Rockydoc at the Rockefeller Foundation – an organization I am privileged to lead today.

His work as an officer was always ambitious, often involved deep partnerships with the private sector, and took risks to make vulnerable families lives better, and the impact was profound. One of those efforts grew into the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and set the stage for his future agricultural transformation agenda in Nigeria.

I have learned a tremendous amount from Akin over the years, but what I think of most is his ability to speak to rural farmers, heads of state, philanthropists and investors with the same genuine, thoughtful and respectful consideration. His ability to be open, honest, and clear with everyone he meets is key to his impact and success as a leader.

As the Minister of Agriculture, he took on a major effort to fight corruption – a fight bolstered by the values he championed as a civil society leader, and his prodigious energy that inspired his team and his partners around the world, including my whole team at USAID.

In his role as President of the African Development Bank, he has not only helped raise the Bank’s visibility around the world, but also focused its efforts on a concrete, impactful agenda to accelerate inclusive growth with a priority on energy and power. Those of us lucky to know him personally know him to be high energy, fun, aspirational, and serious in making a difference for his country and his continent.

The world needs more leaders like Akin.

Dr. Raj Shah, President

The Rockefeller Foundation

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Preface

Against All Odds is about comebacks, creative transformation, and the power to make a difference.

It describes revolutionary changes in Nigeria’s agriculture introduced by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina during his tenure as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2011 to 2015. And it provides critical insights into how, beginning in late 2015, he began reconfiguring the African Development Bank to more effectively help African countries achieve equally revolutionary changes in agriculture, via a Feed Africa strategy.

Against all Odds has been written to help uplift Africa’s Agriculture, reduce poverty and dramatically improve the daily livelihoods of the continent’s citizens.

The author, Leon Hesser, was Director of an American team of agricultural technical specialists in Pakistan from the mid-to-late 1960s and a first-hand witness and participant in the first Green Revolution, for which the 1970 Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug was the Strategist. Obviously, it took a widespread team of scientists, administrators and technicians to pull it off, but Borlaug was the quarterback of the first Green Revolution that took place in much of Asia and Latin America. That story is told in Hesser’s earlier book, The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger.

For a number of reasons, Africa was not yet ready to take advantage of the first Green Revolution.

However, after interacting with and receiving first-hand encouragement from Norman Borlaug at the Rockefeller Foundation in the early 2000s, and then being asked by Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan to serve as the country’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina picked up the torch.

Early in the 21st Century, food production increases in Nigeria had failed to keep pace with population growth, resulting in rising food imports and declining levels of national food self-sufficiency. The unemployment rate was spiraling, driven by a wave of four million young people entering the work force every year and with only a small fraction able to find formal employment. With agriculture providing an overwhelming share of the Nigerian labor force, stagnation in the sector resulted in increased poverty and food insecurity.

During his term as Minister of Agriculture, Adesina’s innovative policies and leadership led to increased agricultural production, a drastic drop in food imports and declining rates of poverty.

Adesina is passionately driven by the belief that agriculture can and will change Africa’s economic and development fortunes. He would be the first to admit that this lifelong belief is hardwired into his DNA.

Each year, Africa spends far too much on food imports. In 2016, Africa imported approximately US$35 billion worth of food that it could have produced on its own. Left unchecked, the figure is expected to treble to US$110 billion by 2025.

This is a real paradox, considering that more than 60% of Africa’s most active population is engaged in agriculture, the continent contains 65% of the world’s most arable uncultivated land, and an abundance of fresh water supplies.

Against All Odds tells the story of how Dr. Adesina’s visionary leadership successfully transformed his country’s agriculture sector, and how he has brought the same clarity and vision to his role as President of the African Development Bank. It describes how he plans to transform African agriculture and create a tangible transformative impact throughout the continent, similar to what was accomplished in Nigeria.

PART ONE

A Change Agent

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Chapter 1

Humble Beginnings

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina is one of Africa’s foremost economic development experts. He was farmer-born and peasant-bred.

Born on February 6, 1960 in Ibadan, Nigeria, he is the second of four sons born to Roland and Eunice Adesina. He grew up in a one-room house without electricity or plumbing and slept side-by-side with his brothers on mats on the floor. Akin’s father and grandfather had worked as laborers on other people’s farms. But he was fortunate. His father, recognizing that his son was academically bright, constantly reminded him that education was a way out of poverty, a ‘leveler’.

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Figure 1: Akinwumi Adesina is hand-held by his Mother, Eunice; at left is Akin’s Father, Roland; next to Father is Akin’s late, older brother, Tunde.

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Figure 2: Left to right: Akin’s Mother, Eunice Adesina; Akin; Akin’s cousin Segun; Akin’s brothers Tunde and Kayode; and Father Roland.

Then as now in many parts of Nigeria, education was considered the only way to break the cycle of poverty. So he was sent to the village school encouraged by his father who wanted him to go higher and farther than he could, and who also made sacrifices to ensure that he did. If you ever become someone important, his father urged, use the opportunity to help the poor.

Adesina went on to high-school and rose to the top of his class. He worked hard buoyed by the belief that even the sons of former farm hands and sons of property owners could study together on equal terms in the lecture theatres of the nation’s best universities,

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Figure 3: Akin Adesina is second from the right, holding his cutlass, with classmates at Ejigbo High School, Oyo State, Nigeria, 1973.

In 1981, at the age of 21, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics with First Class Honors from the University of Ife in Osun State in southwestern Nigeria. While at the University of Ife, he met the woman who would become his wife, Grace, in a Christian Fellowship group. She was studying Botany. They married in 1984. Grace’s father had served as Permanent Secretary of Agriculture under the then Nigerian Military Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo (retired). In 1981, when Adesina went to see her father to ask for her hand in marriage, the two of them ended up having a long conversation about agriculture before Adesina finally got around to the purpose of his visit! Grace’s father remained an important mentor to his son-in-law until his death in 2016.

There were many defining moments in Adesina’s academic career. One in particular stands out. At the University of Ife, a professor once told him he would never gain admission into Indiana’s prestigious Purdue University due to his inability to solve a particular mathematical problem. Even though he had already been accepted to Cambridge, he nevertheless changed his mind and did not enroll. He said, I did not know what Purdue University was at the time so I researched it and it turned out that it was a world-class institution with a fantastic agricultural economics program. I decided to go there instead and I came back with a distinction in my PhD. I later visited my professor to prove to him that I did not fail and that was my point made.

Akin and Grace left for the United States, the land of dreams, to nurture his African dream. One of the first of many adjustments was to the freezing cold Lafayette, Indiana winter weather that had him contemplating leaving the United States early in his first semester. He earned a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics in 1985 and a PhD in 1988 from Purdue University. His doctoral thesis ‘Farmer Behavior and New Agricultural Technologies in the Rainfed Agriculture of Southern Niger: a Stochastic Programming Analysis,’ earned him the outstanding award for the year.

The Purdue graduate years were at times financially difficult for Akin and Grace, but several professors and their families provided friendship, mentorship, and helped sustain them. While he was working on his PhD, their first son, Rotimi, was born in 1986.

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Chapter 2

Moving on to the world stage

Following Adesina’s graduation from Purdue University, the Rockefeller Foundation recognized his extensive talents. He won the Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1988, which in turn would launch his international career in agricultural development. Rockefeller’s Vice President at the time, Joyce Lewinger Moock, became a lifelong mentor and developed special admiration for Grace and the steadfast support she provided her