Bill Gates Accepts Hunger Award

The World Food Program USA's George McGovern Leadership Award was received by Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He got the award together with philantrophist Howard Buffet for their efforts to fight hunger and poverty. Past recipients of the same award were Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dick Durbin, and Paul Tergat of Kenya.

In next week's G20 Summit in France, Gates will present their Foundation's innovations and partnerships in health and agriculture that will help increase global stability. "I'll be taking a message to the G20 that we can't turn our backs on the world's poorest, even in these tough economic times," Gates said. "Our current fiscal crisis shouldn't force cuts in programs like agriculture that build self-sufficiency, pay huge returns, and advance stability and economic growth…It's unconscionable for a famine of this magnitude to be happening in 2011. The world has the knowledge, tools, and resources to help the world's poorest overcome hunger and extreme poverty," he said.

Gates also mentioned some initiatives in agriculture that are getting promising outcomes:

• New rice varieties in India that can "hold their breath" under water have helped save farmers' entire crops from being wiped out. In the next six years, it's expected that 20 million farmers will be planting these and other stress-tolerant varieties in South Asia and Africa.
• Drought-tolerant maize varieties currently benefit more than 2 million smallholder farmers in East Africa. By 2016, the Drought-Tolerant Maize for Africa program is expected to boost maize yields by as much as 30 percent, benefitting up to 40 million people in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries.
• China recently launched the "Green Super Rice" partnership to help develop different types of rice for 12 poor countries in Africa and South Asia. These varieties will be able to adapt to stresses such as drought and pest outbreaks.