Philanthropist Bill Gates announced 120 million dollars in grants to help small-scale farmers in Africa and India improve their lives through sustainable agriculture.

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Grant money will fund a project to create “community knowledge worker networks” connecting villagers with sources of information via mobile phones in Uganda, where mobile phone penetration is around 80-90 percent.

Grants have been earmarked to create “Farmer Voice Radio,” which would broadcast programs promoting sustainable agriculture to African farmers, 70 to 80 percent of whom use radio as a source of information.

And yet more grant money will help to build networks of home-grown expertise that will give Africans greater autonomy when making agricultural policy decisions.