FINANCIER and philanthropist George Soros has offered $US50 million ($A66 million) to support a vast social experiment that aims to help villages in Africa escape grinding poverty.

The announcement came on the same day that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said it was teaming with the Rockefeller Foundation to commit $US150 million ($A200 million) to increasing agricultural productivity in Africa.

Mr Soros' money will, among other things, pay for fertilisers and improved seeds to raise crop yields, classrooms to improve literacy and health clinics to reduce deaths in 33 villages in 10 African countries.

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