Farmers harvesting berries in Kirinyaga county.
Kenya is among the countries that will benefit from a new $1.4 billion investment by the Gates Foundation to help smallholder farmers adapt to worsening climate shocks, such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves.
The four-year commitment, announced at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, will expand access to innovations that help farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia adapt to extreme weather.
Among the projects that will be supported are initiatives such as the partnership between the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) and TomorrowNow, which provides hyper-local weather alerts to millions of farmers across the country.
“Smallholder farmers are feeding their communities under the toughest conditions imaginable," said Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation. "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 foundation said the funding will expand access to innovations that strengthen rural livelihoods and protect progress against poverty in regions where agriculture remains the main source of income and food security. Less than 1% of global climate finance currently targets the growing threats to food systems in these vulnerable areas.
The new commitment aligns with Gates’ broader vision, outlined in his COP30 memo, to prioritise climate adaptation initiatives with the greatest human impact and to help lift millions out of poverty by 2045.
According to the World Bank, targeted adaptation investments could raise GDP by up to 15 percentage points in developing countries by 2050. The World Resources Institute estimates that every dollar spent on adaptation could yield more than $10 in social and economic returns.
“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—governments and the private sector must work together to prioritise adaptation alongside mitigation.”
The foundation’s investment will scale farmer-led, evidence-backed innovations already showing results. These include digital advisory services, climate-resilient crops and livestock, and soil health initiatives.
Digital tools such as mobile apps and SMS platforms will deliver real-time weather forecasts and agronomic advice, including through the AIM for Scale initiative, which targets 100 million farmers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America by 2030.
A $30 million partnership with the Novo Nordisk Foundation will advance soil science research to restore degraded land and reduce emissions, while new funding will promote crop varieties that withstand drought, heat, and emerging pests.
The TomorrowNow and KALRO project, which currently provides hyper-local weather alerts to more than 5 million Kenyan farmers, is among the partnerships expected to expand under this initiative, with rollout planned in Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia.
This latest investment also reflects a shared global commitment by African leaders and Brazil’s COP30 presidency to put food, livelihoods, and health at the center of climate resilience planning.
Together with Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Embrapa, AGRA, CGIAR, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and the United Arab Emirates, the Gates Foundation will co-host the Agricultural Innovation Showcase at COP30 on November 10. The event will highlight affordable, climate-smart technologies designed for and by farmers.
