Gates Foundation Deputy Director speaks on Innovations in Agricultural Development

Dr. Roy Steiner leads the Gates Foundation's Agricultural Development’s efforts to build strong partnerships with countries like China and Brazil in order to leverage their agricultural expertise to benefit smallholder farmers in Africa. Before joining the Gates Foundation Roy lived for eight years in Zimbabwe where he founded and ran Cyberplex Holdings, a group of companies located in three Southern African countries, involved with web software development, as well as evaluation and knowledge management consulting. Roy studied at MIT, Harvard and Cornell and received his PhD in Agriculture and Biological Engineering. Earlier in his career he was employed at the Rockefeller Foundation involved with a sustainable agriculture initiative and then joined McKinsey & Co as a management consultant.

Dr. Steiner spoke about various agricultural initatives led and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in developing countries such as India and Uganda. Steiner explained that agricultural growth has the greatest direct impact on reducing poverty, which is the main reason the foundation has placed such weight on it.

For a copy of the presentation, click here.