(Ecofin Agency) - The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, will allocate between 2018 and 2020, $300 million to agricultural research in African and East Asian nations which are weakened by the global warming. This was disclosed yesterday by the foundation on the sidelines of the “One Planet Summit” held in Paris on the initiative of France’s President, Emmanuel Macron.

In details, the organization will support the adoption of tools and technologies that will help the poorest farmers adapt their activities to high temperatures, and extreme weather phenomenon (drought and flood) and to the lower soils fertility as well.

In the framework of this initiative, the grant will be injected in the improvement, protection and management of cultures.  

“It is the rich countries that emitted these greenhouse gases over the past century. Disadvantaged farmers have nothing to do with that but they suffer its impacts. They must be given better seeds, more productive seeds that can resist heat and drought,” Bill Gates told French radio station RTL

Besides this financial support, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also announced the launch of the “One Planet Fellowship”, in partnership with the Agropolis foundation and the BNP Paribas foundation.

Extending over a period of five years, the fellowship program, with a budget of €15 million, will help support 600 young African and European researchers active in the research of global warming adaptation alternatives for African farmers. 

According to the AfDB’s estimates, Africa’s main products, notably coffee and cocoa, could record by 2050, a slump of 8%-22% of their yields due to global warming.  

Globally, agriculture contributes to about 25% of greenhouse gases emissions. 

Espoir Olodo