WASHINGTON, OCT 24 – The World Bank plans to double its commitment to the agribusiness sector to US$9 billion annually by 2030 as part of efforts to create jobs in developing economies, the bank’s president said yesterday.
Ajay Banga, who took over the 80-year-old development lender last year, told an event at the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington that there are some important shifts taking place in the agribusiness sector.
They include the growing risk of climate change in the agricultural sector, and the creation of new financial tools to ‘de-risk’ the sector which should help increase private sector financing.
The shift in the sector has come ‘at an extraordinary time when global food demand is expected to increase by 50 to 60 per cent in the next decade,’ he said.
The bank, according to Banga, is ‘combining new ways of working with new levels of investment – doubling our agricultural and agribusiness finance commitments to US$9 billion annually by 2030.’
The World Bank president said the agribusiness sector would also help create jobs in developing economies, something he hoped would be discussed during the meeting.
“The effort to transform agribusiness is not only about securing the future food system – it is fundamentally a jobs initiative,” he said, noting that 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will join the workforce in the next decade, but only 420 million jobs are expected to be created. established.
“We are at a crossroads, and the path we choose today will determine the future,” he said.
“By transforming agriculture and agribusiness, we can create the food system of the future, improve living standards and create jobs.” – AFP