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Bill Gates says ideology threatens hunger fix
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 15 - 10 - 2009


The fight to end
hunger is being hurt by environmentalists who insist that
genetically modified crops cannot be used in Africa, Reuters quoted Bill
Gates, the billionaire founder of software giant Microsoft,
as saying today.
Gates said GMO crops, fertilizer and chemicals are
important tools -- although not the only tools -- to help small
farms in Africa boost production.
"This global effort to help small farmers is endangered by
an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in
two," Gates said in his first address on agriculture made
during the annual World Food Prize forum.
"Some people insist on an ideal vision of the environment,"
Gates said. "They have tried to restrict the spread of
biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how
much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it, or what the
farmers themselves might want."
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in recent years has
turned its focus to helping poor, small-holder farmers grow and
sell more crops as a way to reduce hunger and poverty.
The foundation, which has committed $1.4 billion to
agricultural development efforts, announced on Thursday nine
new grants worth a total of $120 million aimed at raising
yields and farming expertise in the developing world.
Funding will go to legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil,
higher-yielding varieties of sorghum and millet, new varieties
of sweet potatoes that resist pests, and a project that will
support African governments to develop policies to serve small
farms, Gates said.
Gates told the World Food Prize forum, which honors people
who make significant contributions to alleviating hunger and
improving agricultural production, that farmers need training
and access to markets, not just new seeds.
The prize was established by Norman Borlaug, the Nobel
Prize winning scientist often called "the father of the Green
Revolution" for his work with rice and wheat.
Gates acknowledged criticism of the first Green Revolution,
which dramatically raised yields in Asia and Latin America, but
had environmental impacts and crowded out small farmers.
"The next Green Revolution has to be greener than the
first," Gates said. "It must be guided by small-holder farmers,
adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy
and the environment."
The Gates Foundation is working with research partners on
drought-tolerant maize using both conventional crop-breeding
techniques and biotechnology, Gates said.
"The technologies will be licensed royalty free to seed
distributors so that the new seeds can be sold to African
farmers without extra charge," Gates said.
The foundation is also involved in work on flood-tolerant
rice and wheat that resists a fast-moving strain of rust
disease.
"I hope that the debate over productivity will not slow the
distribution of these seeds," Gates said.
He also called on research companies to adapt technology to
the needs of small farmers, and to make them available without
royalties in the poorest counties.
African governments must invest in the work, Gates said,
and rich counties that have pledged to increase funding for
agricultural development must spell out the details of their
plans.
"How much is old money, how much is new, how soon can they
spend it, and when will they do more?" Gates said.


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