Africa’s Emerging Seed Industry Gets $56 Million Boost to Increase Food Crops | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Nairobi, Kenya – The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) received today $56 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help more smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa increase productivity and address poverty and hunger. AGRA’s Program for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS) began five years ago to produce disease resistant and higher yielding seeds for important food crops available. The program has already achieved significant success with the majority of farmers who accessed the new seed reporting dramatic increases in their harvests.

“In Africa, farmers have largely not benefited from improved seeds due to a lack of localized crop breeding and efficient, dependable seed delivery system. And so crop yields in most of Africa have remained one-third of those produced by farmers in other developing regions of the worlds,” said Dr. Joe DeVries, PASS Program Director. “Good seed is not just the driving force behind good harvests and eliminating poverty and hunger, it’s the foundation for rapid economic growth.”

To read the full press release, visit the AGRA web site.