BMGF initiatives in farming

Agricultural Development is one of the largest initiatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To date, they have committed more than US$2 billion to agricultural development efforts, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Their approach is based on the following principles:

Listening to farmers and addressing their specific needs
They talk to farmers about the crops which farmers want to grow and eat, as well as the unique challenges farmers face. They partner with organizations that understand and are equipped to address these challenges, and they invest in research to identify relevant and affordable solutions that farmers want and will use.

Increasing farm productivity
They support a comprehensive approach to helping smallholder farmers prosper that includes access to heartier seeds, more effective tools and farm management practices, locally relevant knowledge, emerging digital technologies, and reliable markets. They also advocate for agricultural policies that support farmers in their efforts to better feed themselves and their communities.

Fostering sustainable agricultural practices.
In an era of increasingly scarce resources and growing impact of climate change, we encourage farmers to embrace and adopt sustainable practices that help them grow more with less land, water, fertilizer, and other costly inputs while preserving natural resources for future generations.
Achieving greater impact with partners. They are committed to communicating our strategy more effectively and sharing what we’ve learned with grantees and other partners, including governments, nongovernmental organizations, traditional and emerging donors, and the private sector. Our resources, while significant, represent only a fraction of what is needed. Collaborating effectively with others maximizes our collective impact in helping farming families.

They invest in the following strategic areas that they believe will help address the challenges and local realities faced by farming families in the developing world.

Research and Development
Agricultural Policies
Livestock
Access and Market Systems
Strategic Partnerships and Advocacy
Research and Development


Researchers are seeking ways to combat crop disease such as those infecting the cassava plants on this Tanzania farm.
They support research to develop more productive and nutritious varieties of the staple crops grown and consumed by farming families. These include varieties adapted to local conditions that deliver specific benefits farmers seek, such as increased yields, better nutrition, and tolerance to drought, flood, and pests. They fund research to discover ways to better manage soil and water resources and reduce crop loss due to spoilage, weeds, pests, disease, and other threats.
Agricultural Policies

Timely, relevant, and accurate information is crucial to farmers. Policymakers in developing countries also need good data to inform their decision making. They support data collection, research, and policy analysis to help evaluate the impact of various approaches, get accurate information to farmers, and assess the effects of national and international agricultural policies. Their research also includes measuring the progress of our grants to ensure that they are delivering the anticipated benefits to farming families.
Livestock

Livestock is a key part of farming in developing countries and is crucial to the livelihoods of more than 900 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. They support efforts to improve the health and productivity of livestock—particularly chickens, goats, and cows—by improving animal genetics and veterinary care. To ensure that farmers can benefit from animal health and genetics technologies, they test models for providing farmers with the knowledge and tools they need to increase their on-farm production and connect to stable markets.