10 questions for Bill Gates on innovation, food security and climate change

I am pleased to join the University of Nairobi in welcoming technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates to Nairobi for the November 17 event on “Innovating for Food Security and Climate Change in Africa.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plays an outsized role in African agricultural policies and programmes. It has provided or committed nearly $1 billion to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) since 2006, the vast majority of the funding for the Nairobi-based initiative.

To date, there has been very little accountability from the Gates Foundation for AGRA’s disappointing performance in reaching its stated goals of doubling productivity and incomes for 30 million smallholder farming households while halving food insecurity.

In the interests of transparency and accountability, I would respectfully ask Bill Gates the following questions:

1.The kind of innovation you are on record supporting, through AGRA and other initiatives, focus largely on technology – commercial and genetically modified seeds, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, artificial intelligence and biofortification of foods. Do you see farmers as innovators, with their generations of experience in managing and improving seeds in their local environments?

2. Are agroecological innovations that do not involve new technologies or commercial products, such as the local production of biofertilizers using local materials, important in achieving climate resilience and food sovereignty in Africa?

3. Is the preservation of and support for farmer-managed seed practices, through Participatory Plant Breeding and other farmer-scientist collaborations, an important component of innovation?

4. If so, how will the Gates Foundation ensure that it support for seed laws and policies that enhance intellectual property protection for plant breeders does not in any way threaten or undermine the farmers’ rights to save, exchange, and sell their own improved seeds, rights guaranteed under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants?

4. Many Africans believe your foundation is pressuring African governments to change their seed and biosafety laws to allow the cultivation of genetically modified food crops. Is that the Gates Foundation’s position? If so, isn’t the foundation engaging in lobbying of foreign governments?

5. AGRA and other Green Revolution programmes have focused on a narrow range of cereal crops such as maize, rice, and wheat. Not only has productivity lagged in spite of generous support, traditional staples such as millet and sorghum have languished. Will the Gates Foundation commit to shifting its support away from maize, rice, and wheat and towards healthier and more resilient crops?

6. You have written that synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, derived from fossil fuels, is “magical,” stating that there is no way Africa can grow enough food without it. Farmers would disagree. How much are you recommending African countries increase their use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, despite the climate implications? One recommendation is that it should increase 800% by 2050. Do you agree with that?

7. Will the Gates Foundation call on AGRA and on African governments to transition their input-subsidy programmes away from their unproductive support for synthetic fertilizers and a narrow range of commercial food crops? Many argue that these expensive programmes divert funding from more important initiatives such as research and extension.

8. Evidence shows that AGRA and other Green Revolution programmes have failed to promote the kind of sustainable intensification they promised, instead encouraging cultivation of promoted crops on new lands. Do you recognize that Green Revolution programmes have resulted in unsustainable land use?

9. AGRA recently removed the words “green revolution” from its name, offering no explanation. Other AGRA donors have acknowledged that the change reflects a new awareness that AGRA’s narrow focus on seeds and fertilizers have failed to deliver results and that the first Green Revolution had many negative impacts on the environment and on livelihoods. Do you agree with that assessment?

10. A wide range of African food producer organizations has called for agroecology to be a central feature of African governments’ climate adaptation strategies. Such efforts need both political and financial support. Don’t you think the $200 million your foundation recently committed to AGRA would be much better spent supporting farming that works with nature?

Anne Maina is the National Coordinator, Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya (BIBA-Kenya).