
Bill Gates pledges 120 million to boost African, Indian farmers - Flemlord
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091015/ts_alt_afp/africaindiausfoodfarmcharitygates
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rooshdi
_applauds effort_

A lot of people hate on Bill, but the man sure knows how to invest his money
wisely.

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kyro
But it's all dirty Micro$oft money! That can't be good!

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Technophilis
How do you define "good" ?

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kyro
The same way you'd define "sarcasm," I imagine.

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indranil
Why does the news always only cover the "pledging" and not follow up with
how/when and if at all that pledge and subsequent giving has helped the people
they were supposed to help?

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bjelkeman-again
Maybe we could convince them to use a system like <http://akvo.org> which has
reporting tools from projects that have been funded. Soon we will have SMS
field reporting tools as well, so you don't even need an internet connection
to do it.

Disclosure: Yeah, I am a cofounder of Akvo.org.

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djb_hackernews
He doesn't say what area or which country but I spent a few weeks in Burkina
Faso in West Africa. ( it will rank as one of the poorest countries in the
world) I hung out with a friend who was working on a food security program for
a US based NGO, so I have a good idea about the current conditions. The
farmers are trying to grow crops in terrible conditions and I don't think any
amount of money is going to help them. It's just an arid barren soil with
absolutely zero infrastructure. Which doesn't really matter because these
farmers are trying to grow food just to live, not to sell. I think most of the
country has conditions not suitable for human habitat, but those are the
people that need help the most.

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fauigerzigerk
I don't understand your argument. There are farmers trying to grow food on
dry, possibly salty, soil without infrastructure, without fertilizer, without
much irrigation, without knowledge of modern agricultural methods, without
access to good seeds, and you're saying better methods and better
infrastructure, more knowledge, etc would not help them? Why not?

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muriithi
I know Bill Gates is in no position to do this but the best way to help
farmers in third world countries is to stop paying out the stupendous
subsidies that the developed world pays to keep their farmers "in business".

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bjelkeman-again
If anything, they should look into supporting the One Acre Fund.

<http://www.oneacrefund.org/our_results/program_dashboard>

They are doing an incredible job and and a question and answer session about
their work can be found here:

[http://globalswadeshi.ning.com/forum/topics/global-
swadeshi-...](http://globalswadeshi.ning.com/forum/topics/global-swadeshi-
dialogues)

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bjelkeman-again
Some more info on the One Acre Fund.

The One Acre Fund a group operating in Africa doing incredible work: doubled
food production, halved (or better) infant mortality, as shown below. Sample
size was 4000 farms, now they are involved with 12000 farms.

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TheElder
I used to admire such humanitarian actions, but I've come to question the
effectiveness of it. Bill Gates, and many others in the West like him, want to
prevent suffering in the world, and I admire that, but I think it might
actually create more suffering by creating means for more people to survive
and create more offspring who in turn end up being just as poor, suffering
just as much, creating an even bigger humanitarian crisis.

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forinti
What we have now is the product of exactly what you are advocating: doing
nothing. So how do you think it will get better?

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TheElder
I understand your point and I don't have a clue as to what will end poverty, I
really don't think it's possible. I do know this, you say that the current
state is a result of doing nothing, I don't find that to be factual. Billions
of dollars (probably trillions) from the Western world has been given to
poverty stricken areas, technology has been given and shared, schools built,
peace keeping forces have been put in place in some areas, hospitals have been
built, and so on.

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known
There is no Corruption-Free delivery system in India because 85% Indians do
not have any Bank Accounts.

<http://tr.im/kJHv>

And this is the way Indian Leadership will keep its Voters SUBSERVIENT.

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mncaudill
It's all about the Benjamins, sadly.

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lsd5you
I don't mean to be an idiot, but at this point all life saving charity should
aim to secure a reduction in population growth to offset the lives saved.

Being merely a humanitarian is a moral luxury with an environmental cost.

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berntb
Well, the only (+) way we know to lower population increase is urbanization
and increased living standard. So democracy and industrialization are the ways
forward on the population bomb.

Arguably, Gates' grants works towards that. It will result in better
agriculture, in the future leading to mechanization -- which means people
moving to cities.

(+) Let us leave discussions of e.g. reintroducing the plague to Al Qaeda. 1/2
:-)

Edit: I might add that I think human lives are worth the environment, inside
sane limits. Pollution go down with increased wealth, anyway.

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lsd5you
Actually I've heard a quite compelling case that the emancipation of women is
the single biggest factor in reduced fertility rates in the developed world.
Obviously it is a corelate of democracy and development, but the former
without the latter may be insufficient.

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berntb
You can of course make a long list of additional preconditions, starting with
"good governance".

It isn't relevant to my counter argument that Gates' grants in fact works
towards stopping the population growth you feared.

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mrbgty
How will the farmers who don't get any money be able to sustain their business
when the farmers who do are able to lower their prices due to the subsidy?

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steveplace
I don't think there's going to be a problem with the demand-side for food in
Africa.

It will be critical with how they structure it. Less aid, more investment.

