Bill Gates says people living in extreme poverty can improve their lives by raising chickens - and he's planning to do his part with a newly launched poultry philanthropy project.

The billionaire philanthropist, speaking in front of chickens pecking and clucking in a New York City skyscraper, announced plans on Wednesday to donate 100,000 chicks to poor nations in an effort to end extreme poverty.

The chicks will go to rural areas in two dozen developing countries from Burkina Faso to Bolivia, where the Heifer International charity manages breeding operations and distribution, according to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Raising and selling chickens can lift families out of poverty, and a farmer breeding 250 chickens a year could make $1,250 U.S., said the Foundation, which is partnering with the Heifer International.

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Bill Gates, speaking in front of chickens pecking and clucking in a New York City skyscraper, announced plans on Wednesday to donate 100,000 chicks to poor nations in an effort to end extreme poverty

Gates said a farmer starting with five hens could earn $1,000 a year, compared with the extreme poverty line of $700 a year. Pictured, a young boy holding a cockerel in Laos

'There's no investment that has a return percentage anything like being able to breed chickens,' said Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp.

'If I were living in extreme poverty, I'd want to raise chickens,' he wrote on his Twitter feed on Thursday.

Gates said a farmer starting with five hens could earn $1,000 a year, compared with the extreme poverty line of $700 a year. (A Business Insider tally from 2013 found that Gates himself makes more than $23,000 a minute).

Eventually Gates wants to help 30 percent of rural African families raise chickens, up from 5 percent now.

Gates' wife Melinda, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said breeding chickens can also empower women by giving them a source of income, which they are more likely than men to spend on education and healthcare.

In New York, Gates urged the public to donate through Heifer International.

Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates speaks to the media, in front of a chicken coop set up on the 68th floor of the 4 World Trade Center tower in Manhattan

'There's no investment that has a return percentage anything like being able to breed chickens,' said Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp

'The numbers today in terms of Americans who give to Heifer or things like that is actually quite small, so we'd like to see that scaled up,' Gates said.

Referring to the proverb that teaching a man to fish will feed him for a lifetime, he said: 'The parable could have been stated in terms of giving somebody a chicken and showing them how to raise chickens.'

Gates said he aimed to boost household chicken ownership in places such as West Africa, where it is now 5 percent, to 30 percent.

Gates made his announcement on the 68th floor of a new building at the World Trade Center, a site not typically used for showcasing chickens, he said.

'We snuck them in,' he quipped.

Some critics said the programme was a publicity stunt and wouldn't solve the underlying problems of poverty in Africa. 'Our father, Who art Uncle Bill, Hallowed be thy whims ...' Nigerian satirist and author Elnathan John wrote on Twitter.

Gates acknowledged that some might scoff at the plan, but insisted that he believes it will have an impact. 'It sounds funny,' Gates wrote on the project's website. 'But I mean it when I say that I am excited about chickens.'

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest private charities in the world, has invested heavily in Africa, tackling a wide range of issues in healthcare, education, women's rights and poverty alleviation.