Bill Gates puts cash into Wageningen project
Thursday 15 October 2009
A charitable foundation owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates has put almost $20m into a Wageningen University project to boost food production, the university said on Thursday.
The project will allow farmers in parts of Africa to improve the fertility of the soil by spreading a bacteria which boosts nitrogen levels. These bacteria form colonies in nodules they create on the roots of peas, beans, and related species which are able to convert nitrogen from the atmosphere.
'The soil then improves and farmers can then start growing corn and other arable crops,' project leader Ken Giller said in the Telegraaf.
Wageningen says more than 200,000 farmers in Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zimbabwe will benefit from the four-year project.
© DutchNews.nl
Get the DutchNews.nl newsletter in your mailbox: Click here to subscribe
Readers' comments
Place your comments:
|
Tuesday: An overcast and misty start but sunny spells in most places later. Similar on Wednesday 
This is the kind of news we would like to read everyday! Well done Bill Gates, the world is a better place for having you in it! Thank you for being who you are.
By ester | October 16, 2009 11:49 AM