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Gates Foundation to pump $120m into Africa’s agricultural sector

Gates Foundation to pump $120m into Africa’s agricultural sector
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Friday, October 16, 2009 2:21:12 AM

MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates was yesterday expected to pour nine grants worth US$120 million into the agriculture sector in developing countries to empower millions of small-scale farmers to grow enough to build better and healthier lives.

During the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa, in his first major address on agricultural development, Gates was expected to lay out the Bill Gates Foundation’s vision on agriculture which included investments in better seeds, training, market access, and policies that support small farmers.

The foundation’s new grants include funding for legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil, higher yielding varieties of sorghum and millet and new varieties of sweet potatoes that resist pests and have a higher vitamin content.

Other projects would help the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa to support African governments in developing policies that serve small farmers; help get information to farmers by radio and cell phone, support school feeding programs; provide training and resources that African governments can draw on as they regulate biotechnologies.

To date, the foundation has committed US $1.4 billion to agricultural development efforts.

“Melinda [Gates’ wife] and I believe that helping the poorest small-holder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world’s single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty,” according to Gates’ draft of his speech.

The draft statement also stated that Gates would say that the effort must be guided by the farmers themselves, adapted to local circumstances and sustainable for the economy and the environment.

“…the effort must be guided by the farmers themselves, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment,” the statement read in part. “…governments, donors, researchers, farmer groups, environmentalists, and others to set aside old divisions and join forces to help millions of the world’s poorest farming families boost their yields and incomes so they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.”

After his speech, Gates was joined on the stage by the 2009 World Food Prize laureate, Dr Gebisa Ejeta, a renowned Ethiopian sorghum researcher who was honoured for his work to develop hybrids resistant to drought and the Striga weed—advances credited with increasing food security for hundreds of millions of Africans.

posted by MrK @ 1:21 AM