Agriculture Finds a Friend in Bill Gates
21 February 2012 In his annual letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates wrote that he is alarmed by the lack of funding support for agriculture research and stressed the need for innovation in agriculture. This report comes at a time when drought still prevails in Texas, the largest cotton-producing state in the United States, and India has lowered its cotton crop production for this season.
In the 2012 annual report of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation released in January, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said, “It is shocking – not to mention short-sighted and potentially dangerous – how little money is spent on agricultural research.”
The report also cites USDA statistics that there is a dwindling population of farmers in developed countries like United States, while in developing countries like India and Brazil, the percentage of agriculture workforce is as high as 56% and 21%, respectively.
The report points to the lack of funding support for combating the increase in plant diseases and emphasizes the need for more study on the effect of climate change on agricultural productivity.
Gates has insisted that world must invest in new techniques to help farmers deal with unpredictable and inclement weather. He has urged the agriculture community to take advantage of new tools such as genetic engineering to accelerate the pace of plant research.
Read more stories by Dr. Seshadri Ramkumar at Cotton International.
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