Gates donates €200m to help small farmers

MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates is to give about £150 million (€202m) towards green technology and farming methods hoping to lift millions of Africans and South Asians out of hunger and poverty.

Mr Gates, who is stepping down as the company’s chairman later this year, said the funds would go to organisations studying ways to use affordable techniques to improve yields that will enable small farmers in Africa to feed themselves and earn cash.

“Why do we think agriculture is so important?” Mr Gates said. “Of the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day, three-quarters are small farmers. And often it is actually the woman who is doing her best to both create crops for eating and earn some cash to buy other things.”

Mr Gates made his announcement at the World Economic Forum in Davos after telling the 2,500 political and corporate leaders gathered there they had to pursue a new kind of “creative capitalism,” working with governments and non-profit groups to stem global poverty.

He came up with his own example saying that he and his wife had decided that agriculture should join health care for the poor as one of their foundation’s main projects.

The new project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to work with specialised organisations to provide small-scale farmers with appropriate seeds, fertilisers and water-management knowledge to boost yields. Governments in the areas can help by supporting the training, he said.

Mr Gates said it would take several years to see significant results from the project.

Some gains will be seen in two years, he said. “But in terms of a large number of smallholders, it takes us about five years to... get to significant numbers.”