World Bank aims to double agribusiness commitment

WASHINGTON

The World Bank plans to double its commitment to the agribusiness sector to $9 billion each year by 2030 as part of a push to create jobs in developing economies, the bank's president has said. 

Ajay Banga told an event at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington that there were some important shifts taking place in the agribusiness sector.

These include the growing risks to agriculture from climate change, and the creation of new financial tools for "derisking" the sector that should help boost private sector funding.

The shifts in the sector have arrived "at a time of extraordinary opportunity as global food demand is set to increase by 50 to 60 percent in the coming decades," he said.

The bank, Banga said, was "combining a new way of working with a new level of investment -- doubling our agrifinance and agribusiness commitments to $9 billion annually by 2030."

The World Bank president said the agribusiness sector would also help create jobs in developing economies, something he has looked to champion during these meetings.

"The effort to transform agribusiness is not only about securing the food systems of tomorrow -- it is fundamentally a jobs initiative," he said, noting that 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will enter the workforce in the next decade, but that only 420 million jobs are projected to be created.

"We stand 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 tomorrow, raise living standards, and create jobs."