Bill Gates’ Sh16 billion grant to boost farming

Small-scale farmers in developing countries will receive a Sh16.5 billion ($200 million) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve production.

The foundation’s co-chairman Bill Gates said the funds would be re-invested in projects that support the development of 34 new varieties of drought tolerant maize, livestock vaccine and train some 10,000 “agro dealers to equip and train farmers” on better farming methods.

Mr Gates, the Microsoft founder, made the announcement on Thursday while addressing the International Fund for Agricultural Development Governing Council meeting in Rome, Italy.

The foundation has already spent Sh165 billion ($2 billion) to help lift the smallholder farmers out of poverty, he said.

“The goal is to move from examples of success, to sustainable productivity increases, to hundreds of millions of people moving out of poverty.

If we hope to meet that goal, it must be a goal we share,” he said.

He proposed the setting up of a public scorecard to measure how countries, food agencies and donors were contributing towards the overall goal of reducing poverty.

“The scorecards will help each part of the system focus on its key contribution to the overall goal, diagnose problems as they arise, and spread the most effective interventions,” he said.