Better Agriculture Data and Innovative Tools will Help Deal with Climate Change: Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates said that better statistical information & innovative tools will help minimize the damage of climate change on the agriculture sector.

He said as the effects of climate change will increase on farmers in future, there is a prospect for engaging with the private sector in agriculture and play a significant role in improving the crop yields.

Gates in his keynote address at the 8th global conference on Agri-statistics said, "At a time when we have to boost productivity, climate change is making it far difficult. Understanding how the changing climate is affecting crops & productivity and how we can adapt to that; requires best work in agriculture statistics that includes use of new tools".

Talking about India's soil health card, Gates said the soil quality data helps growers determine what fertilizers to use. But, there are opportunities to add extra data to the existing one and also make a detailed soil mapping.

The billionaire philanthropist also said, "Better soil, better information & better statistics will help in minimising the damage of climate change".

He further said that since the climate change issue is "complicated", different interventions needs to be taken including developing new variety of seeds & their distribution to the farmers. Gates told there is a chance to engage with the private sector in farming, as there is a need to make available the new models as well as products to the farmers to deal with climate change.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on his turn said that "India is an agriculture-based country & government depends on statistics for policy making." He said the subject of statistics & probabilistic ideas in the country seem to be of ancient origin in India.

The 4-day global conference started on 18 November 2019 and is being organized by the Agriculture Ministry in association with the UN's the FAO, the World Bank, the US Department of Agriculture, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & some other agencies.