COP30 reveals 2.5 tri/- boost for Africa’s smallholder farmers

BELEM, Brazil: THE Gates Foundation  announced a new commitment to advancing climate adaptation, helping smallholder farmers build resilience to a warming world and protect hard-won gains against poverty.

Announced at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where leaders are emphasizing locally driven adaptation, the four-year, 1.4bn US dollars  investment ( 2.5tri/-) will expand access to innovations that help farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia adapt to extreme weather.

 In these regions, where food security and livelihoods depend on agriculture, smallholder farmers and the communities they feed are among the most exposed to droughts, floods, and rising temperatures.

 Yet less than 1 percent of global climate finance targets the growing threats to these vital food systems.

“Smallholder farmers are feeding their communities under the toughest conditions imaginable,” said Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation.

Added  “We’re supporting their ingenuity with the tools and resources to help them thrive because investing in their resilience is one of the smartest, most impactful things we can do for people and the planet.

The commitment supports Bill Gates’ vision, outlined in his recent COP30 memo, of prioritizing climate investments for maximum human impact and advances the foundation goal of lifting millions of people out of poverty by 2045.

Farmers in low-income countries produce one-third of the world’s food but face mounting climate threats. Without greater adaptation investment, these shocks will continue to drive food insecurity and reverse hard-won gains against poverty.

World Bank research shows that targeted adaptation investments could boost GDP, particularly in small island developing states, by up to 15 percentage points by 2050.

The World Resources Institute estimates that every dollar invested in climate adaptation will yield more than 10 US dollars in social and economic benefits within a decade.

“Climate adaptation is not just a development issue—it’s an economic and moral imperative,” said Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation.

“This new commitment builds on our support for farmers in Africa and South Asia who are already innovating to withstand extreme weather. But they can’t do it alone—l governments and the private sector must work together to prioritize adaptation alongside mitigation.”

While climate shocks continue to intensify, the financing needed to help farmers adapt to them is not keeping up.

According to the 2025 UN State of Food Security and Nutrition report, Africa was the only region where hunger and malnutrition increased this year. Without urgent adaptation, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that agricultural productivity in parts of Africa could drop by up to 20 per cent by 2050.

The foundation’s new investment will scale farmer-led, evidence-backed innovations that strengthen rural livelihoods and food systems amid growing climate threats.