Africa’s biggest multilateral lender announced a $1.5-billion fund to boost grain production to help avert potential food shortages stemming from Russia’s war with Ukraine. The African Development Bank will use the facility to supply about 20-million farmers with climate-smart certified seeds and fertilizer. That’ll facilitate the rapid production of 38-million tons of food — including wheat, corn, rice and soybeans — equivalent to a $12-billion increase in output over two years, the Abidjan-based lender said Friday in a statement sent by WhatsApp.