Bill Gates on Wednesday unveiled a plan that his charity foundation will help bring hundreds of thousands of smaller farmers into the market as suppliers to the UN World Food Program (WFP).
Microsoft's part-time chairman joined WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran and leaders of three African nations at the 63rd UN General Assembly in New York to launch the plan, according to the Seattle Times newspaper.
The plan is an effort by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to try new market mechanism to address poverty by linking one of the world's largest food buyers with the world's smallest farmers.
Gates is also expected to give an address about the UN Millennium Development Goals Thursday at the assembly, where the global food crisis is taking centre stage.
The Gates Foundation and the Howard Buffett Foundation, which was named after U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett's eldest son, are working with WFP on an initiative called Purchase for Progress (P4P) to transform the way the UN agency buys food in developing countries.
The two foundations, together with the government of Belgium, have committed a total of 76 million U.S. dollars to the new program, which will guarantee a market for small farmers who normally lack market information.
The program will be launched in 21 pilot countries over the next five years, and expects to significantly increase the income of at least 350,000 farmers in those nations, officials said.
WFP is the world's largest humanitarian organization, which provides food for 90 million people in 80 countries and has a budget of nearly 3 billion dollars this year.