Gates Foundation Earmarks $70-Million to Raise Food Production
February 28, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Sunday announced $70-million in new spending to help small farmers in the developing world boost their crop yields and incomes, Reuters reports.
The British government’s Department for International Development is adding $32-million over five years to the effort to increase agricultural production in Africa and Asia as escalating food prices raise the risk of widespread malnutrition and political instability in poor countries.
Cornell University will receive $40-million of the money from Gates and the United Kingdom to develop varieties of wheat that can resist new strains of stem-rust disease, which threaten the crop that produces 30 percent of the world’s grain.
