The Gates Foundation on Friday announced a new four-year, $1.4 billion investment commitment to help smallholder farmers build resilience against climate change.
The announcement – aimed at farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where many livelihoods as well as food security depend on local agriculture – comes as world leaders gather in Belem, Brazil, for Cop30.
As the world grows warmer, smallholder farmers and the communities they feed are among the most exposed to droughts, floods and other disasters, but only 1 per cent of global climate finance targets this growing threat, the Gates Foundation said in a release.
“Smallholder farmers are feeding their communities under the toughest conditions imaginable,” said Bill Gates, head of the Gates Foundation. “We’re supporting their ingenuity with the tools and resources to help them thrive – because investing in their resilience is one of the smartest, most impactful things we can do for people and the planet.”
Farmers in low-income countries produce one-third of the world’s food but face mounting climate threats, the Gates Foundation said. Without greater adaptation investment, these shocks will continue to drive food insecurity and reverse hard-won gains against poverty.
Sub-Saharan Africa, which contributes the least to global emissions, is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions when it comes to climate change. Water scarcity is a major concern for farmers, as is the increasing intensity of storms.
In South Asia, rising temperatures have contributed to crop failures as it disrupts planting seasons, and water scarcity is also an ever-growing concern. People across the region are struggling to adapt amid longer and more intense heatwaves, cyclones, droughts and floods.
“Climate adaptation is not just a development issue – it’s an economic and moral imperative,” said Mark Suzman, chief executive of the Gates Foundation. “This new commitment builds on our support for farmers in Africa and South Asia who are already innovating to withstand extreme weather. But they can’t do it alone – governments and the private sector must work together to prioritise adaptation alongside mitigation.”
