BILL GATES WENT TO CANNES TO REMIND THE TOP 20 WORLD LEADERS THAT THE WAY TO FIGHT POVERTY AND HUNGER WHICH STILL AFFECT 925 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE SOUTH OF THE WORLD, IS AGRICULTURE

Bill Gates will be the first “private citizen” to intervene at the meeting of the world’s 20 largest economies, the G20 in Cannes and he will not talk about technology or computer science, but agriculture. The much anticipated speech by the founder of Microsoft and billionaire philanthropist who has been very active in dozens of projects for many years in the poorest countries in the world such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, is an historic event. The Western world is now experiencing an economic crisis that is becoming more and more serious day by day, while the Southern part of the world fights daily with the tragedy of malnutrition. 

According to FAO’s latest statistics, there are 925 million people starving in the world, and 98% of them live in developing countries. The data that calls for deepest reflection is that 75% of all the world’s hungry live in rural areas, especially in villages in Asia and Africa whose economies and food needs are totally dependent on agriculture, and they have no alternative sources of income or employment.

Clearly, then, salvation can come exclusively from the fields: “I am shocked,” says the Microsoft guru, “by the fact that in the twenty-first century, parts of the world still suffer from hunger. The world has the resources, knowledge and skills to help the poor fight hunger and extreme poverty”. The examples that Africa should follow come from the Asian giants and Brazil, “examples of countries that, having received aid, have managed to drastically reduce poverty. Both have significant knowledge, China for rice and Brazil for soybeans, and both are starting to become donor countries”.
We must follow the road marked “green revolution” explains Bill Gates, “because the World Bank has shown that the best investment for reducing poverty is developing agriculture, provided that the leaders of rich countries keep their commitments (22 billion dollars for the food promise allocated at the G8 in 2009)”.