Investing in the World's Farmers

Published October 23, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

Is empowering small farmers in the developing world the best way to help people escape poverty? Bill Gates is betting it is.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the foundation he runs with his wife, has committed $120 million to the project of getting smallholder farmers the resources and support they need to up their crop yields and yank themselves up from hunger and deprivation.

In his first major speech on agricultural development, delivered last week at the World Food Prize event in Iowa, Gates explained his belief in the need to invest in more effective seed varieties, targeted training, increased market access and policy initiatives that advantage small farmers, according to a foundation press release.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development, a specialized agency of the United Nations, asserts that agricultural systems began declining in the 1970s due to a widespread perception among world leaders that farming was not profitable. Aid to agriculture slipped from 18 percent of total international assistance in 1979 to 2.9 percent in 2006, and domestic developing-country investment in agriculture declined as well, by around one-third across Africa and up to two-thirds in Asia and Latin America.

Without investment in infrastructure and supportive policies, agricultural productivity plummeted, knocking global food stocks down by around 3.4 per cent a year since 1995. Less food has led to lessened accessibility and higher prices, which has increased food insecurity and hunger.

Now, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 800 million people suffer from chronic hunger and malnutrition in large part because of insufficient investment in addressing food insecurity, which occurs when food is unavailable, too expensive or distributed in inappropriate ways.

"Melinda 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," Gates said. It appears that he has an excellent point.

What remains to be seen is whether the investments his foundation makes will spur increases of the production of the right kinds of foods and benefit the people who really need the help. Gates should aim to encourage the development of systems unlike the one here in the U.S., which supports abundance of the wrong kinds of foods and benefits those who already have the greatest advantages.

Photo courtesy of AGRA, via flickr

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Comments (5)

You leave out the part where Mr. Gates chastised "environmentalists" for standing in the way of unregulated GMO adoption throughout the entire continent. I feel that's an important part of this story, particularly in the context of a sustainable food discussion.

Gates is hoping to prompt a second Green Revolution, and has shown very little concern about the potential negative impacts that GMO crops could bring. Even I can admit that GMO adoption could yield positive benefits (even though I doubt the long-term "sustainability" of the practice), but it doesn't seem like Gates is willing to make the same concessions and admit that there is some danger in letting GMO seeds flow unfettered onto every farm in Africa.

Hunger is a huge problem, but there's not going to be one home run solution to solve it. And even more importantly, I think in any decision you need to weigh the positive vs. the negative, and I'm just not convinced that's really being done here.

Posted by Greg Plotkin on 10/23/2009 @ 07:24AM PT
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Uh oh. Bill Gates is smart. Hopefully he's smart enough to know he's not qualified to make decisions for entire nations about GMOs.

I want to know who educates Bill Gates on these matters so that he can make informed decisions about how to spend his money????

I'd like to see some wealth invested in Urban planning and renewal incorporating vertical and rooftop farming and sustainable energy like solar.

Posted by Laurie Walker on 10/23/2009 @ 08:30AM PT
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It looks like financial advisors have his ear, and scientists whose bread is buttered by Monster-santo... (Monster disguised as saint)

He is heavily invested in Monsanto, so to promote dependency on their products is in his financial best interest. It's just that simple.

Posted by Laurie Walker on 10/23/2009 @ 08:52AM PT
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I think the last paragraph sums up the most important part of this article. It's great Bill Gates is doing such a thing. I remember learning in high school that once in a blue moon, corporations tend to lend a ear to humanitarian needs. This was for better PR. Though there are two sides of the story no doubt. However, little change is better than no change at all? Overall, I still believe that, such acts do not affect the change that's needed, which is a more fundamental change i.e. from the root. I'll leave others to comment on that part.....

Posted by Arif Islam on 10/23/2009 @ 11:53PM PT
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How nice that someone is finally paying attention to smallholder subsistence farmers. Unfortunately, Mr. Gates' unholy alliance with Monsanto means that the ones paying attention are little more than well-funded wolves drooling over the henhouse.

What more could Monsanto want than to have the entire Third World on a financial leash to their patent-protected GMOs, and other expensive, risky, fossil fuel-dependent inputs. Now if Bill Gates put his money behind helping smallholders learn the most cutting-edge permaculture, organic and agroecological practices to increase yields and local self-reliance.... Wow!

Petition anyone?

If GMO led to crops with high nutrition, drought tolerance, no need for pesticide or ammonia fertilizers, and weed tolerance, and were totally unable to transfer their genes to nearby non-GMO cousins, and they were sold patent-free and unlicensed like hybrid seeds at hybrid seed costs, I'd say go GMO.

But no, Monsanto et. al. have bred high-cost patented seeds that must be licensed every year, that have less nutrition, and need more fertilizer and herbicide, and have no significant increase in yields. And oh yeah, they spread their pollen like mad, contaminating nonGMO crops and wild plants, and contributing to the development of superweeds.

Maybe it's better if Bill Gates chose to spend his money elsewhere.

Posted by Dawn Gifford on 10/24/2009 @ 07:18PM PT
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Author

Katherine Gustafson is a freelance writer and editor with a background in international nonprofit organizations. Her articles, essays, and stories have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, books, and Websites.