Microsoft’s Gates spotlights agriculture

During meeting with Pryor, mogul talks up investing in farming research

Arkansas Democrat-GazetteSARAH D. WIRE - 03/13/2014 - Bill Gates (L) tells U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor about a method used to fortify rice with nutrients during a meeting in the senators office Thursday, March 13, 2014.
Arkansas Democrat-GazetteSARAH D. WIRE - 03/13/2014 - Bill Gates (L) tells U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor about a method used to fortify rice with nutrients during a meeting in the senators office Thursday, March 13, 2014.

WASHINGTON - The world needs to focus more on improving agriculture to feed its growing population, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told senators Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D Ark., who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee’s Agriculture Subcommittee, and ranking committee member U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., met privately with the richest man in the world for about a half hour to discuss investments in agricultural research.

Gates leads the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which since its 1997 founding has invested billions each year with the most influential players in global health care and agricultural research for the poor. In 2012, the foundation provided $3.4 billion in grants, according to its website.

The Gates Foundation has spent more than $2 billion on improving farm productivity, promoting sustainable growing practices and increasing access to livestock, according to its website.

Gates told reporters before the meeting that two-thirds of the world’s poor are farmers, many of whom grow only enough food to survive. In 2012, the foundation began focusing on agricultural research along with its work to eradicate polio, malaria and other diseases.

“The world as a whole probably underinvested in agriculture research up until maybe 2005, 2006,” Gates said. “The U.S. has maintained a reasonably high percentage, but even now I think there are opportunities to do more.”

One method he pointed to is adding nutrients such as folic acid to bags of rice so that when the rice is cooked it is more nutritious. Gates said some poor farmers who eat only what they grow don’t have a varied, nutrient-rich diet.

Government can serve a constructive role in avoiding food shortages through “funding research - which the U.S. government has always been fantastic on - providing education to farmers through extension services, and then in varying degrees helping farmers with the volatility of the prices as they come along,” Gates said.

Pryor said after the meeting that Gates noted the world’s population will double within the next 75 years.

“When they look out long-term, there’s going to be an enormous food shortage,” he said.

Gates was not asking the country to invest more taxpayer dollars, Pryor said.

“He just wanted us to understand how important it is. He was pretty pragmatic about it,” Pryor said.

Pryor said the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that $20 of benefit comes from every $1 invested in agriculture research.

Gates praised Little Rock-based Heifer International, which provides livestock to poor farmers to use for food and income, Pryor said.

“He was saying the Heifer is a really great organization, so that’s great,” Pryor said.

Pryor said the Gates Foundation reached out to his subcommittee for the meeting. He said he was surprised that the mogul was interested in agriculture.

“How does a guy that’s a total computer guy that knows nothing about agriculture … how does he make this transition into really being an advocate for world agriculture?” Pryor said.

On Wednesday, Gates spoke about education and foreign aid at the Watergate Office Building at an event hosted by Atlantic. Today he is to speak about improving education at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards conference.

Business, Pages 30 on 03/14/2014

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