Gates Foundation To Build Crop Technology Nonprofit In St. Louis

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to build a nonprofit organization in St. Louis to advance technologies that would help small farms in developing countries.

The nonprofit, to be named Gates Ag One, will focus on more rapidly developing seeds and technologies that could help farmers in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa raise yields. The foundation also aims to help growers adapt to more frequent droughts, floods and other extreme weather events brought on by climate change. “Smallholder farmers need new innovations to help them adapt,” the Gates Foundation noted in a press release. “Without these innovations, farmers will be forced into increasingly unsustainable practices to feed their families while coping with climate change — like expanding crop production and grazing into forests and other fragile ecosystems. Such tactics would further damage the environment and exacerbate the effects of climate change.” […]

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