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Published online 25 January 2008 |
Nature
| doi:10.1038/news.2008.530
Corrected online: 29 January 2008
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Gates funds agricultural development
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent to revitalize African soils.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, on Friday announced a package of grants totalling US$306 million aimed at improving the productivity and profitability of agriculture in the developing world.
Most of the money will go to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which intends to improve the soils in more than 6.
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If he wants to make a real difference, fund automation and robotics in agriculture. That program was virtually shut down 30 years ago by Chavez' UFW as part of a political deal in order to maintain Chavez' UFW constituency, which would otherwise have disappeared along with most manual labor. Robotics in agriculture has the potential to raise productivity to the level of "French intensive gardening" plots, do multi-cropping routinely, eliminate destruction of topsoil, (a huge looming problem as bad as global warming) and cut cost of farming even further. Our current machinery is really quite crude and destructive to the land cultivated. There are technologies that have been used now in factories for decades that could utterly revolutionize food production. We can track plants location within centimeters, we can visually process to differentiate crop plants from weeds and both from desired ground cover. How can we not make use of that? Most food is produced in the developed world. If Mr. Gates actually wants to change things to feed the world, that is where he should look. He could also make a huge amount of money doing it.
It's incorrect to say the International Rice Research Institute "the newly flush institute will channel all $19.8 million into the Africa Rice Center." Please correct this. Duncan Macintosh, IRRI
I sure don't understand Ellen Hunt's comment. Does she want to increase productivity in the developped countries? Is she aware that food production in the world is enough to feed twice the world population but not even half of these are fed properly? Should Gates money be used to increase further this imbalance, and make MORE money for Mr Gates?. I am happy that he is smarter than that and doing what he is doing.
Please see: http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/food_supply/food.htm "Today, per capita production ... appears to be declining." http://www.energybulletin.net/21736.html "world food supply just about meets demand, with no reserve ... eroded by ...: meat, heat and biofuels. For the sixth time ... the human race will grow less food than it eats this year. [2006]" The developed world has fed the rest for many years now. Africa is unable to apply the green revolution, and is destroying its soils rapidly. Robotics in farming can stop our own soil loss. It can allow us to continue to feed the world. And, the solutions developed can leapfrog into Africa, allowing agriculture there (potentially, dependent on politics) to stop African soil loss while revolutionizing productivity with minimal fertilizers.
"Does she want to increase productivity in the developped countries?" Yes. Nowhere else can productivity significantly increase. "Is she aware that food production in the world is enough to feed twice the world population but not even half of these are fed properly?" No, because this is wrong, decades old facts. "Should Gates money be used to increase further this imbalance, and make MORE money for Mr Gates?" Yes. His money was made by being smarter and ruthlessly competitive, and this allows you and I to write to each other for such a low cost. He should not blow his money on things that will not return on investment.
Regarding funding for the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Africa Rice Center: The Gates Foundation has awarded IRRI US$19.8 million over 3 years. The work will be carried out with partners in Asia and Africa, including the Africa Rice Center, which will be supported through IRRI from this research grant.
Bill Gates is a very smart person. He knows what he is doing with his money. The shift of focus from HIV/AIDS to agriculture is itself telling. It implies that he has realized in a comparatively short time that the greatest problem facing the world is of hunger and malnutrition. He is going for it directly, while trying not to snatch the power and initiative from the people he is trying to help. The government farm subsidies in many developing nations have been drastically cut due to restructuring of their economies at the behest of IMF/WB. The help Gates is lending would ameliorate some of the hardships faced by small farmers in these countries due to that.
Madame Ellen, Thanks for pointing out that much of the food produced is used for meat, heat and biofuels. Therefore food production per se is not the problem! Considering the fantasy of robotics in agriculture for a moment, this will only encourage more industrial involvement in agriculture, which will invariably drive the produce and profit towards the "meat, heat and biofuel" consuming population; not the subsistence farmers! What we actually need is projects that will really continue to employ them in what they do (agriculture) that will give them the purchasing power for the basic necessities in life. Meanwhile we who are enjoying the "meat, heat and biofuels" more than what duely belongs to us, can strive to practice a sensible way of living.