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Bio
Dr. Akin Adesina
Vice President
Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa
Dr. Akin Adesina is Vice
President (Policy and Partnerships) for the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a bold new entity established by the
Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the
goal of bringing a green revolution to Africa, and lifting millions of
poor farmers out of poverty and food insecurity. Former UN Secretary
General, Kofi Annan, is the Chairman of AGRA.
He is a distinguished
agricultural economist, with over 20 years of professional experience in
African agriculture. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Economics (First Class
Honors) from the University of Ife, Nigeria. In 1988 he obtained his PhD
in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, USA, where he won the
Outstanding PhD Thesis Award for his innovative thesis work.
Dr. Adesina won the prestigious
Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship in 1988, which
initiated his career in international agricultural development. He has
worked variously in senior research positions in International
Agricultural Research Centers of the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research. This includes: Principal Economist and Social
Science Research Coordinator for the International Institute for Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) (1995-1998); Principal Economist and Coordinator for
West Africa Rice Economics Task Force at the West Africa Rice Development
Association (WARDA) (1990-1995); and Assistant Principal Economist at the
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
(India and Mali: 1988-1990).
He joined the Rockefeller
Foundation, New York, as a Senior Scientist for Africa in 1998 and later
served as Rockefeller Foundation Representative for Southern Africa, based
in Harare Zimbabwe (1999-2003) and is an Associate Director (Food
Security) at The Rockefeller Foundation, based in Nairobi, Kenya
(2003-present).
He has published over 70 articles
in international journals, conference proceedings and books on issues of
agricultural development in Africa and serves as reviewer for several
international journals. He is currently the President of African
Association of Agricultural Economists; and an Executive Board member of
the International Association of Agricultural Economists. He is a member
of the Advisory Committee of the Partnership to Cut Hunger in Africa and
the Board of the Agribusiness for Sustainable Natural African Plant
Products (ASNAPP) program of the United States Agency for International
Development.
He is widely known and respected
as Africa’s leading “development entrepreneur”. He helped to design,
inspire and galvanize support of the international community behind the
landmark Africa Fertilizer Summit, where 40 heads of states agreed to
solve Africa’s fertilizer crisis in the drive towards an Africa green
revolution. He is widely consulted on agricultural development issues in
Africa by the World Economic Forum, World Bank, African Development Bank,
governments and several other development institutions.
Dr. Adesina received the
Outstanding Black Agricultural Economist Award from the American
Agricultural Economics Association in recognition of distinguished
academic and management contribution to the field of agricultural
economics and international agriculture. He was awarded on September 1,
2007 the prestigious Yara Prize for African Green Revolution in
Oslo, Norway, for his leadership on the green revolution for Africa, and
especially his pioneering work with developing rural agrodealer (rural
input suppliers) networks that are now supplying affordable farm inputs to
millions of poor farmers across Africa. He is married to Grace and
together they have two children, Rotimi and Segun.
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