The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced four major grant programmes totalling over $245m (£149m) in the fields of agriculture, science, medical research and development and history.

Speaking at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa, on 14th October in his first major address on agricultural development, Bill Gates laid out the foundation’s vision for united action to help the world’s poorest farmers boost their yields and incomes so they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. He identified the need for investment in better seeds, training, market access, and policies that support small farmers.

Gates announced nine grants totaling $120m (£73m), including funding for legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil, higher-yielding varieties of sorghum and millet, and new varieties of sweet potatoes that resist pests and have a higher vitamin content.

Meanwhile, the Foundation awarded six grants of $100,000 (£61,000) each to innovative scientists in 16 countries to fund bold projects to fight infectious diseases. This is the third round of the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations $100m (£61m) initiative which has so far funded 262 researchers representing 30 countries.

The projects were chosen from almost 3,000 proposals. They include an attempt to create a handheld ‘electronic nose’ that gathers and analyses breath samples to diagnose tuberculosis, and a plan to develop chewing gum that can detect malaria biomarkers in saliva.

Combatting malaria is also the purpose of the fifth and largest grant from the Foundation to Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). The additional $115m (£70m) over the next five years will support MMV’s research to eradicate malaria using all the health tools needed, from drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and pesticides to long-lasting insecticide-treated bed-nets.

Closer to home, the Foundation has awarded $10m (£6.1m) to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is expected to open in late 2015 on the National Mall in Washington. The purpose of the grant is to support the capital campaign of the new museum, which is raising funds for the design and construction of its building.