ADB boosts Asia-Pacific food security fund to $40 billion

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Sunday it plans to expand its support for long-term food and nutrition security in Asia and the Pacific by $26 billion, increasing its total funding commitment for such initiatives to $40bn over the 2022-2030 period. ADB President Masato Kanda announced the new target during the bank’s annual meeting in Milan, Italy. The expansion builds on the ADB’s September 2022 pledge to provide $14bn by 2025 to ease a worsening food crisis in the region and improve long-term food security. By the end of 2024, the ADB had committed $11bn — about 80 per cent of the original allocation — with an additional $3.3bn programmed for 2025, the bank said. “Unprecedented droughts, floods, extreme heat, and degraded natural resources are undermining agricultural production, while at the same time threatening food security and rural livelihoods,” Mr Kanda said.