Bill Gates pushes for more focus, advancements in agriculture to help hungry, poor in Africa
By APThursday, October 15, 2009
Bill Gates pushes for more attention on Africa
DES MOINES, Iowa — The world can make huge strides in reducing hunger and poverty by helping the world’s poorest farmers become more productive, Microsoft Inc. co-founder Bill Gates said Thursday.
Gates, co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, spoke at the World Food Prize symposium, where he said more needs to be done to help small-holder farmers in Africa increase production and get their crops to market.
“If we can make small-holder farming more productive and more profitable, we can have a massive impact on hunger and nutrition and poverty,” Gates said.
The World Food Prize and the annual conference where it is awarded was founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, a crop scientist known as the father of the green revolution.
Ethiopian scientist Gebisa Ejeta, now a professor at Purdue University in Indiana, is this year’s recipient of the $250,000 prize. Ejeta was recognized for his breakthroughs in developing a drought-resistant sorghum widely used in Africa.
Earlier Thursday, the Gates Foundation announced nearly $120 million in grants to help bring a green revolution to sub-Saharan Africa.
About half the grants will go toward agriculture research in Africa, including experiments with sorghum, millet, legumes and sweet potatoes. Several unusual projects also were announced, including proposals to use cell phones and radio programs to educate small farmers.
The foundation gave the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa $15 million to influence agricultural policy in more than a dozen African nations. The alliance plans to train about 400 agriculture economists at several African universities so they can analyze policies and advocate for change.
“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,” Gates said during his speech in Des Moines.
He said the global effort to help small farmers is being threatened by a divide between those who want to increase productivity and those who promote sustainability.
“It’s a false choice,” he said. “It blocks important advances. It breeds hostility among people who need to work together. And it makes it hard to launch a comprehensive program to help poor farmers.
“We certainly need both productivity and sustainability and there is no reason we can’t have both,” he said.
Gates said the environment can benefit from increased productivity.
“When productivity is too low, people start farming on grazing land, cutting down forests, using any new acreage they can,” he said. “When productivity is high, people can farm on less land.”
He said the world needs to develop crops that can grow in the world’s harshest conditions and survive drought and floods, while producing higher yields.
Gates said the global movement to reduce hunger must include everyone but that Africa must lead the way.
He said African leaders met in 2004 and pledged 10 percent of their national budgets for agriculture. While some countries, such as Ghana, have reached that goal, most have not.
“African leaders should hold each other accountable,” Gates said. “Is there any reason not to find 10 percent of your budget … for the biggest problem the poor face?”
Gates said the solution must be all-encompassing.
“We need foundations, universities, the U.N., the World Bank, scientists, farmers, groups and other to intensify their support,” he said. “And we need corporations to play a role.
He said research companies can use technology they’ve developed for big agriculture and adapt it for the needs of small farmers.
“They shouldn’t try to change the customer to suit what they sell; they should change what they sell to suit the customer,” Gates said.
He also called on food companies to use their buying power to create markets for small farmers.
“These companies have a huge opportunity to help poor farmers by turning to them as suppliers,” Gates said.
He said poor farmers are “not a problem to be solved.
“They are the solution,” he said. “The best answer for a world that is fighting hunger and poverty and trying to feed a growing population.”
Associated Press writer Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.
Tags: Agricultural Science, Des Moines, Iowa, North America, Philanthropic Foundations, Philanthropy, Scientific Prizes And Competitions, United States
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