Gates agriculture grants focus on seeds, climate DES MOINES, Iowa | Thu Oct 14, 2010 6:24pm BST (Reuters) - Gates Foundation, which has donated $1.5 billion to agriculture in developing countries, is focusing more investments on seeds and technology to help small farmers adapt to climate change, the foundation's chief executive said on Thursday. "Most of our grants support conventional breeding. But in certain instances we include biotechnology approaches because we believe they can help farmers confront drought, flooding, disease, or pests more effectively than conventional breeding alone," Jeff Raikes, chief executive of the foundation started by the billionaire founder of software giant Microsoft, said in a speech to the World Food Prize meeting. Raikes cited recent funding for a project to develop drought-tolerant corn for African farmers, which is now being used in Malawi and other countries. Other grants have helped develop a variety of rice that can tolerate subm...