In their 2015 Annual Letter, Bill and Melinda Gates are making a big bet—that the lives of people in poor countries will improve faster in the next 15 years than at any other time in history thanks to breakthroughs in health, farming, banking, and education. In particular, thanks to innovation and investments in smallholder farmers, they are confident that “Africa will be able to feed itself.”

The co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are well-aware of the significant challenges holding back Africa’s smallholder farmers and their production capacity: African farmers get just a fraction of the yields that American farmers get; agricultural extension is complicated, expensive, and often overlooks women farmers; and poor infrastructure makes transporting food extremely difficult.  As a result, Africa relies on foreign aid and imported food to feed itself, spending $50 billion to purchase food from other countries.  Also, since most Africans rely on a diet of starched-based staple crops, "malnutrition runs rampant," they note.  Meanwhile, future projections for population growth and climate change suggest that there will be more and more people to feed on the continent, even as farming becomes more difficult.

But the solutions to these obstacles are within our reach: over the next 15 years, “innovations in farming will erase these brutal ironies,” they write.  Providing farmers with more productive inputs, such as fertilizers and seeds, as well as better extension services and imrpoved infrastructure will help Africa achieve food security by 2050.
 

At The Chicago Council, we have our own big bet on how to beat poverty and feed the world: investing in smallholder farmers will ensure that our global food supply is not only secure, but also nutritious and sustainable, leading to better health and environmental outcomes as the world prepares to feed 9 billion.

What’s your big bet for 2030? Tweet your ideas for feeding 9 billion to @GlobalAgDev with hashtag #GatesLetter