The Gates Foundation’s Agricultural Policy Portfolio

The Gates Foundation’s Agricultural Policy Portfolio

With Speaker: Prabhu Pingali, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Chair: Mark Rosegrant, IFPRI

Thursday, September 11, 2008

3:30 – 5:00pm

The majority of the world’s poor people depend on agricultural production to sustain their livelihoods and those of their children. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the leading private-sector philanthropic organizations supporting agricultural development. It is actively working to put an end to the cycles of poverty and hunger by promoting the development of tools, knowledge, and policies that enhance farming skills, increase productivity and incomes, and create opportunities for small farmers and their families that enable them to escape poverty. In 2007, the foundation allocated over $600 million to agriculture–related projects. Dr. Pingali will discuss the Foundation’s priority areas for supporting agricultural development with a particular focus on agricultural policy.

Dr Prabhu Pingali is Deputy Director and Head of Agricultural Policy and Statistics, Agriculture Development Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mark Rosegrant is the Director of the Environment and Production Technology Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC.

Seminars & Conferences
International Food Policy Research Institute

Email: s.hill-lee@cgiar.org
Fax: (202) 467-4439
Phone: (202) 862-8107

Want to practice your Spanish and learn about Fabretto Children's Foundation (the organization where I work) and its work on rural high school curriculum? Check out this video.

Debating the Rising Food Prices

The Economist has started a pretty interesting debate on the Global Food Crisis. Using a traditional format with a virtual DEBATE HALL, the magazine is offering opening, rebuttal and closing arguments on opposing views in the debate. The debate also invites readers to contribute with comments and vote for the most convincing argument.

The preposition: "There is an upside for humanity in the rise of food prices"

Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow at the Wolfensohn Center for Development, supports the proposition

Dr. Joachim von Braun, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute opposes the preposition

Check it out so you can read their excellent arguments pro and con. Also, participate, the comment section is equally rich.

From AIARD Ag-Biotech Updates

News and articles on Agricultural Biotechnology. Spread the word

• Scientists Genetically Engineer 'Super Carrot' Rich in Calcium Source:Natural News
• Japan Finds Unauthorised GM Rice in China Products Source:Reuters
• Improved Seeds for Central Asia Source:FAO Newsroom
• New Global Soil Database Source:FAO Newsroom
• International Conference for Peanut Genomics and Biotechnology Source:Crop Biotech Update
• Cassava for Food and Energy Security Source:FAO Newsroom
• GM Papaya with Improved Resistance to Mites Source:Crop Biotech Update
• Insect Antifreeze Protein Confers Cold Tolerance in Tobacco Source:Crop Biotech Update
• Negative Attitudes 'Hindering' China GM Commercialisation Source:SciDev.Net
• Farmers Urged to Join "Greener" Revolution Source:FAO Newsroom
• Study Predicts Crop-Production Costs Will Jump Dramatically in 2009
  Source:University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
• BASF Plant Science Takes Amflora Case to EU Court Source:BASF
• Pepper Gene Enhances Potato Stress Tolerance Source:Crop Biotech Update

Agirculture development in Morning Edition

Good series from NPR's Morning Edition. Broadcast by Dan Charles, the series explore different aspects of agriculture in Honduras: Ag Investment; Supermarket Revolution; and tmrw GMO's. Stay tuned

People for development

That's right, the cute pictures cost People Magazine $14m and all of it (as far as i know) is going towards development....or at least organizations that work on issues of international development, especially global health endeavors .

Through their very own Jolie-Pitt Foundations (no website), funds will be used to help organizations such as International Finance Facility for Immunization, UNITAID, Advance Market Commitments, Debt2Health, Product Red and others.

Putting aside the international debate over aid effectiveness, I think is great that Vivienne and Knox (the babies' names) will be contributing to the work of these organizations. More important though, this move is part of a larger trend in which traditional mechanisms for development are being replaced or complemented by the collaborative efforts of unlikely partners. The timing couldn't be better, the challenges posed by the food crisis need creative and exhaustive approaches. I hope to see more Brads and Jolies as well as Bills and Melindas, the little they can do will be appreciated by many.

PS. Keep watching Babel in your PC!

On the news

• Good Article from USAToday about funding for International Ag research: Money for Crop Research Just a Drop in the Bucket
• From Since Daily: Traditional Forms Of Agriculture: Unexpected Degree Of Diversity, Time-honored Principles
• From IPS another perspective on the Doha debate: TRADE: New World Order in Doha’s Wake
• from IFPRI some good articles on AIDS: Strengthening Families Affected by HIV/AIDS and the Food Crisis
• Good list of book reviews by the New Agriculturist
• And from Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León, Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, an oped from Forbes:
  

  'The absurd goal of "food sovereignty" has made a comeback in a number of countries both poor and rich and is being used as an argument to resist and cancel the liberalization of agricultural markets. This position--most clearly exemplified by France--is ironic because agricultural protectionism, not freer markets, is what has aggravated the problem"...
  

Pics from the Plot

OKRA

Spiral Garden...26 herbs! -3 used :(

blueberry, squash and basil

The plot