Summary
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is putting big bucks behind a push to improve farming in Africa and the rest of the thrid world; he includes biotech crops as part of the solution.
Analysis
Bill Gates made a dramatic speech last week in the farm land of Iowa about the push for farming by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With $1.4 billion dollars dedicated towards improving productivity in Africa and other third world countries, he could just have an impact.
I have just returned from a volunteer consultancy in the food sector in Ghana and worked with a group of 4,000 small farmers last year in Uganda. The small farmers in the third world are in desperate need of help, especially in the form of loans to increase their productivity.
Bill Gates supported the use of biotechnology as part of the solution, as did Dr. Norman Bourlag, who was the Father of the Green Revolution. Both men recognize that the next agriculture revolution requires more emphasis on sustainability. This can and must go hand in hand with the latest technology and the optimal use of farm inputs that include the best seeds (including biotech seeds), fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides.
Companies working in this sector such as Norweigian Yara International ASA, Australian NuFarm and Israeli Makhteshim Agan Group, not to mention the larger brand name companies Monsanto (MON) , DuPont, Bayer Crop Sciences, Syngenta and BASF are contributing to improve the lot of the third world farmer and in turn should see financial benefits as the farmers in the developing world grow. It can be a win win effort and contribute to the goal of feeding the world in a more sustainable fashion.
Gary Drimmer consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
