The Gates Foundation's 'niche' role on climate

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has undergone one of “the most pivotal shifts” to its agricultural development programs by focusing on climate change adaptation for smallholder farmers, a significant move for one of the largest funders in the sector, which stops short of reorienting all its work to climate. That’s according to Purvi Mehta, who serves as the agricultural lead for Asia, and was tapped earlier this year to head the foundation’s new climate portfolio within its agricultural development programs. After seven years of focusing on Asia’s agricultural development, she will now also direct its climate-specific investments. The shift comes as the foundation considers the role climate is having on global food security and poverty. On Monday during the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt, the foundation announced it would invest $1.4 billion “to help smallholder farmers address the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change.” The funding will come over four years and help farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to “build resilience and food security.” It will focus on innovation in climate-smart agriculture projects and innovations in livestock farming, use of digital technologies, and support for women farmers. Assistance will be provided through ongoing partnerships with CGIAR and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, as well as other initiatives. In a recent essay accompanying his annual Goalkeepers report, Bill Gates wrote that climate change was among the “recent shocks” to global food supply that necessitated increased innovation in agriculture and food production. This includes things such as crops bred to withstand droughts and floods. Mehta acknowledged the road ahead on climate adaptation remains steep. “There is so much to be done,” she said, noting that climate cannot be tackled with the typical “project-by-project approach” in agriculture. “We will only play a very, very niche catalytic role,” Mehta said. “Unless you scale climate intervention we will not make any dent. … To identify those right entry points and to create that catalytic role … we have to be very, very smart.” “One of the big questions for us would have been that with so much happening, where is it that we can add value?” --— Purvi Mehta, deputy director of agriculture for Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Some investments will be climate-specific, primarily in adaptation, while others will be climate-sensitive and target other sectors, but taking climate into account, she said. In line with the announcements made this week, the portfolio will focus on Africa and South Asia, and the “end user” will remain smallholder farmers. Smallholders, some 80% of farmers in low- and middle-income countries, are less resilient to the whims of nature because they have fewer resources to tap when a growing season does not go as planned. Larger farms have access to irrigation systems or crop storage facilities, which allow them to sell their products when prices are highest. Small-scale farmers are also more dependent on public policy, Mehta said. Being productive in a changing climate translates into profitability and determines whether they can earn a sufficient livelihood if climate effects accelerate faster than they were prepared for. “There’s a saying in East Africa and there’s a very similar saying in South Asia by the farmers. It says, ‘We are dependent on two things: one is the God, and one is the policymaker,’” Mehta said. The foundation’s adaptation work aims to give smallholders the tools to update their practices so they can reap successful harvests even as weather patterns become more severe — is a “very, very important component.” A shift from increasing yields to climate adaptation will allow the Gates Foundation to make climate-specific investments and incorporate climate into every piece of its work on agriculture, she said. That includes the livestock portfolio and crop research and development, to help develop climate-resistant seeds. “One of the big questions for us would have been that with so much happening, where is it that we can add value?” Mehta said of the numerous global disasters. “Do we want to categorize ourselves as a climate organization? I think the answer is no … We really don’t want to position ourselves as the world’s climate people.” She said that without talking about climate change, the foundation will not be able to achieve what it wants to achieve when it comes to poverty reduction and food security. “We would never call ourselves very conscious investors into climate — which we had to change because our strategy … is mainly on inclusive agriculture transformation,” Mehta said. One way to get governments interested in spending their own resources on costly investments in climate adaptation is spotlighting the impact it has on economic growth. “If I’m a minister and you come to me with these all compelling arguments: It’s going to be raining more, and there’s going to be more drought and all that, I’m less interested. The moment you say that your GDP will go down by 2%, I’m more interested,” Mehta said. Data show that a 3.2-degree hike in global temperatures will result in an 18% drop in global economic growth, she said, directly hurting crops. Just one or two degrees higher temperature will reduce maize production by 7.8%, she said. “What does that do to farmers' income, which was already one of the lowest?” she asked. Teaching farmers climate adaptation is not the responsibility of any one person or organization, Mehta said, so it often doesn’t happen. Governments don’t have capacity, leaving the private sector to do much of the training. Education is focused on how to use hybrid seeds, apply fertilizer, and use irrigation systems, but little is directly focused on climate change. She said farmers were never taught to deal with variations in rainfall or soil. “We’ve never been able to, and we are still not able to,” she said. Developing feasible adaptation strategies requires acknowledging people’s realities, Mehta said. Although livestock are blamed for a large portion of global greenhouse gas emissions, they are vital for smallholders. In countries such as India, 80% of the milk consumed comes from crop farmers who happen to also keep a few milk cows, and not actual livestock farmers. This integrated farming system provides many benefits, she said. Around 70% of India’s animals are fed with crop residue, instead of feed crops — which are often unaffordable. “You have the crop residue, which is fed to the animals, the animals are producing milk because of this diversification system. And at the same time then the animals are also fortifying the land. So it’s a full cycle,” Mehta said. “Diversification in [the] farming system is also one very interesting … climate adaptation strategy.”