Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina aka Dr 3A’s is a
distinguished agricultural development expert with 24 years of experience in
developing and managing successful agricultural programmes across Africa.
He graduated with Bachelors degree in Agricultural
Economics with First Class Honours from the University Of Ife, Nigeria (1981),
where he was the first student to be awarded this distinction by the
University. He obtained his PhD degree in Agricultural Economics in 1988 from
Purdue University, USA, where he won the Outstanding PhD Thesis for his
research work.
Until his recent election as the President of
African Development Bank Group, he was the Honourable Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development (2010-2015. Dr. Adesina has held senior leadership
positions in some of the foremost agricultural institutions in the world.
He was Principal Economist and Social Science
Coordinator for the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan
(1995-1998); Principal Economist and Coordinator of the West Africa Rice
Economics Task Force at the West Africa Rice Development Association
(1990-1995); and Assistant Principal Economist at the International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. He was Associate Director, Food Security
at the Rockefeller Foundation where he was in senior leadership positions from
1998- 2008; Regional Office Director and Representative for Southern Africa.
He has published extensively and served on
Editorial Boards of several leading journals. He was the President of the
African Association of Agricultural Economists from 2008-2010. He has received
several international awards for his work and leadership in agriculture.
In 2007, he was awarded the prestigious YARA Prize
in Oslo, Norway, for his leadership in pioneering innovative approaches for
improving farmers' access to agricultural inputs in Africa. He was awarded the
Borlaug CAST Award in 2010 by the Council for Agricultural Science and
Technology, USA, for his global leadership in agricultural science and
technology. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University
in 2008 and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Obafemi Awolowo University,
in 2009. He was awarded Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Franklin and
Marshall College, USA, in 2010 for his global leadership on agriculture and
improving the lives and livelihoods of the poor.
He was appointed by the United Nations
Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon as one of the 17 global leaders to spearhead the
Millennium Development Goals. His passion is to use agriculture to end hunger,
create wealth and jobs and drive equitable economic growth in Africa to lift
millions out of poverty. He brought that passion to his native home Nigeria, in
his position as the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
(up until yesterday 28th May 2015), where he spearheaded major
reforms that transformed Nigerian agriculture under the outgoing
administration.
In his position as the Minister of Agriculture for
Nigeria, Dr. Adesina aggressively implemented bold policy reforms, ended
decades of corruption in the fertilizer sector and pursued innovative
agricultural investment programs to expand opportunities for the private sector
to add value to crops produced in Nigeria. His passionate commitment drove a
new wave of change in agriculture in Nigeria, moving it away from a development
program into a business, to reduce dependency on food imports, generated wealth
and created jobs.
He is married to Grace and together they have two
children, Rotimi and Segun.
#Walking in the footsteps of Giants with Gbenga
Asaolu~Eagleolu# Akinwumi Adesina_ May 29
Connect: BBM: 2BC57FB5; twitter @gbengasaolu;
whatsapp +2348053293551: www.olugbengasaolu.blogspot.com
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