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Study Information on Current Projects
Statement of Task
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Study Background: Emerging Technologies in Agriculture to Benefit Farmers in SubSaharan Africa and South Asia
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $955,000 to the National Research Council's Board on Agriculture
and Natural Resources for a study to identify new scientific knowledge and promising technology with the potential
to transform the production capabilities of farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Looking beyond today's proven
technologies, the study will focus on identifying emerging innovations to identify the next generation of tools, including
those that may be highly uncertain but have the potential to be powerful, and that draw on cutting-edge developments in a
broad range of scientific fields.
In the study's first phase, experts from different scientific fields will explore the technological horizon in disciplines
ranging from agronomy and genomics to information science, materials science, chemistry, engineering, and other fields,
in search of innovations that can promote sustainable crop and animal production in these developing regions of the world.
In a second phase, the study will identify steps needed to develop the most promising ideas into field-testable agricultural
applications.
