The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) started with a flurry of announcements, proclamations, and investments, including a $1.4 billion commitment from the Gates Foundation to support one group that faces the threat of climate change head-on — farmers.
“Smallholder farmers are feeding their communities under the toughest conditions imaginable. We are 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,” Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation, shared in a press release.
The Gates Foundation invests in smallholder farmers
The philanthropic organization of tech innovator Bill Gates and his ex-wife and businesswoman Melinda French Gates, the Gates Foundation, will invest that money over the next four years to support initiatives improving conditions for smallholder farmers, including digital advisory services, climate-resilient crops and livestock, and soil health innovations.
The investment will expand support for programmes the Gates Foundation is already working with, including AIM for Scale, which has a goal of providing 100 million farmers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America with AI-based weather forecasts by 2030.
Additionally, the funding will support non-profit TomorrowNow and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, which are providing local weather alerts to more than 5 million Kenyan farmers with plans to expand into Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia.
Previously, the Gates Foundation supported advancements in soil health with a $30 million investment in the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Smallholder farms (less than two hectares) produce approximately 35% of the food, according to a 2021 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. However, only $5.53 billion — or 0.8% of total climate finance — go towards small-scale agrifood systems, according to a report from the Climate Policy Foundation.
“We’ve seen what’s possible when smallholder farmers have access to the right tools and resources — they adapt faster than anyone. With the right investment and strong partnerships, we can put powerful, data-driven solutions directly in farmers’ hands — so they can make informed decisions and build resilience on their own terms,” said Wanjeri Mbugua, CEO of TomorrowNow.
Closing the tech gap to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers
Two weeks ahead of COP30, Bill Gates released a COP30 memo, titled “Three tough truths about climate,” cautioning against doomsday climate change predictions and advocating for rigorous impact measurements.
Under the pillar of improving health and prosperity, Gates emphasized agriculture needs to change to improve the lives of poorest countries, since those countries are often agrarian economies. Technologies from crop breeding to mobile phones can improve farmer livelihoods in a number of ways, he pointed out.
“In the next five years, a low-income farmer will be able to get better advice than anything that’s available to the richest farmers today.”
Bill Gates, tech innovator and chair of the Gates Foundation
For instance, African agricultural scientists, with support from the Gates Foundation, developed new maize seeds for Kenyan farmers, which can thrive in drier seasons due to climate change. Even simple mobile devices are helping smallholder farmers gain crucial agronomic advice more easily, and AI suggestions can help a grower know the best time to fertilise, Gates noted.
“In the next five years, a low-income farmer will be able to get better advice than anything that’s available to the richest farmers today,” Gates stated in the memo.
