Innovation in agriculture helps alleviate hunger and poverty.

The vast majority of the poorest people in the world—those living on less than $1 per day—live in rural areas. They grow their own food, much of which does not provide the basic nutrients they need to be healthy. Consequently, it is impossible to reduce poverty and hunger significantly without addressing agricultural productivity and development. In 2005, we began the process of exploring whether we can play a long-term role in this effort. In 2006, our learning had progressed to the point that we decided to expand significantly our investments in agricultural productivity and development.

Since the early 1960s, when leading institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation helped initiate the Green Revolution, improvements in agriculture have transformed the lives of billions of people. Despite these successes, agriculture hasn't been a priority in the field of development for several decades, and existing global agricultural research and development has failed to address many of the priorities of small farmers. Moreover, agricultural advances that are relevant to the poor don't always reach those for whom they were intended. For example, Africa lags far behind Asia in adopting the higher-yielding crop varieties that have been developed over the past 40 years. Solving this problem is particularly important because new technological advances may allow for significantly improved crops, such as drought-tolerant maize, that could contribute dramatically to the well-being of poor farmers.

We are making investments that address four priority areas: applying the latest bioscience to crops important to the poor; improving local breeding and extension efforts to reach farmers with locally appropriate seeds and other inputs; strengthening access to markets for small farmers; and initiating efforts to improve policy- and decision-making in agriculture.