The Gates Foundation has announced a $1.4 billion pledge to support smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, including Kenya, amid climate challenges. The funds, spread over four years, aim to enhance access to technologies for crop yields, livestock, and land restoration. This initiative addresses critical funding gaps for farmers who produce much of the world's food.
Bill Gates, through the Gates Foundation, has committed $1.4 billion (Ksh180 billion) to bolster small-scale farmers' resilience against extreme weather. The pledge, detailed in a foundation statement, will be disbursed over four years to expand innovations in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. These include boosting crop yields and livestock production, providing digital advisory services, and restoring degraded land.
“Smallholder farmers are feeding their communities under the toughest conditions imaginable,” Gates, the foundation’s chair, said. “Investing in their resilience is one of the smartest, most impactful things we can do for people and the planet.”
The initiative targets funding gaps in global food systems. Small-scale farmers grow more than a third of the world’s food and face droughts and floods at the forefront, yet receive less than one percent of public climate finance. This aligns with Gates’s shift in climate strategy toward aiding the poor and supports the foundation’s aim to lift millions from poverty by 2045.
In Kenya, part of sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers are poised to benefit. A 2019-2029 Ministry of Agriculture strategy estimates 4.5 million such farmers: 3.5 million crop farmers, 600,000 pastoralists, and 130,000 fisherfolk. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) suggests over 7.5 million. These farmers, cultivating less than 5 hectares with family labor and limited mechanization, produce 75 to 80 percent of Kenya’s agricultural output, relying mainly on rain-fed systems.
Rift Valley leads with 1,241,482 small-scale farmers, followed by Eastern with 888,675 and Coastal with 235,779.