NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

By Kim Harrisberg

Food donors want to deliver cutting-edge technology to poor farmers in place of aid in a bid to cut waste, preserve precious land – and make themselves redundant.

In a shift they hope to accelerate, the donors say that tech – not handouts – is their best hope of tackling rising climates in a hungry world and preventing any long-term dependency.

“We used to just bring food in, now we are putting billions into local smallholder farmer opportunities to get things moving along,” David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said in a panel discussion on Wednesday.