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Fertile friendship
http://www.ecns.cn/business/2012/12-18/41082.shtml
Dec 18th 2012, 07:59
2012-12-18 16:59 China Daily Web Editor: qindexing
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A Chinese expert demonstrates the use of a rice transplanter. China has dispatched nearly 10,000 agricultural technicians to Africa since the 1950s. LU RONG / XINHUA
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete (left) and his wife Salma at an agricultural technology demonstration center set up by China in Tanzania. GUO CHUNJU / XINHUA
China's agricultural know-how is helping africa enlarge its supply of food
Thousands of years ago the Daoist philosopher Laozi said it is better teach a man to fish than to give him fish. That teaching has been central to how agriculture has developed in China.
Now Chinese are carrying that philosophy to Africa, many of whose huge population live on productive soil but rely heavily on imported food.
Since the 1950s, China has dispatched nearly 10,000 agricultural technicians to Africa and built more than 240 agricultural projects there, the Ministry of Agriculture says.
"Opening up agriculture is an important part of China's opening-up in general," says Wang Ying, director-general of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The idea of "bringing in" and "going out" is important to the ministry, and underlies Chinese agricultural exchange and cooperation programs worldwide, he says.
"International cooperation not only brings more capital support, technology and skilled people to China, but takes resources from China to developing countries, making China an active contributor to world agriculture."
Agricultural trade between China and Africa has risen sharply over the past decade. It was worth $4.78 billion last year, almost seven times what it was worth in 2001, and last year agricultural trade grew by more than 40 percent.
The Chinese agriculture ministry enjoys close ties with most of its African counterparts, and at the end of April as many as 28 agreements related to agriculture had been signed between China and 16 African countries.
The ministry has also established a cooperation mechanism with nine African countries, including South Africa, Egypt and Sudan.
"The success of the Forum on China-Africa has provided new impetus to China-Africa ties," Wang says.
Through the forum, the ministry is establishing up to 20 agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa.
More than 100 Chinese agricultural experts have worked for at least a year in the 33 African countries of the forum, and Chinese experts have trained 1,500 Africans.
China will continue to strengthen ties with Africa in demonstrating, promoting and giving training in agricultural technology, Wang says.
It is skills and knowledge that can help local governments introduce agricultural technology to their populations, rather than providing material support, he says.
The ministry's work with Africa through bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, as well as the African Union, remains important, he says.
At the Africa-Britain-China Conference on Agriculture and Fisheries in Beijing last month, a four-year China-UK program was launched to help African countries improve agricultural production in an effort to eliminate hunger.
The program ― to which Britain is contributing 10 million pounds ($15.9 million) and China is contributing expertise ― will ease the transfer of agricultural technology to countries in Africa and Asia. Pilot projects will be set up in Malawi and Uganda.
China's vice-minister of agriculture, Niu Dun, says that thanks to advanced technology and supportive policies, China's grain output has grown this year for the ninth successive year.
"In addition to realizing self-sufficiency in grain, China has helped other developing countries, especially in Africa, to improve agricultural productivity and food security in recent decades."
Cooperation with African countries, such as with freshwater fisheries and processing agricultural products, will be strengthened, he says.
The ministry will also continue to promote agricultural investment and development in Africa, and help to make agriculture self-sufficient, stressing the importance of exports.
Many Chinese companies are also involved in African agriculture.
Zhang Ke, a foreign aid project manager with Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co Ltd, says his company, founded in 1999, has trained people in almost all African countries that needed planting rice.
Training initially covers planting and irrigating hybrid rice, which was cultivated by the Chinese scientist Yuan Longping and has a higher yield than other strains.
Rice is the staple food for more than half the world's population and about 60 percent of China's 1.3 billion people.
"The training now involves many other crop varieties, such as hybrid corn and vegetables," Zhang says. "We have also begun to help with crop processing and storage."
In Liberia, the average harvest of hybrid rice is now as much as 5 or 6 metric tons a hectare, compared with a yield of 1 to 1.5 tons a hectare with local rice breeds, he says.
The increased harvest can partly be attributed to a lot of hard work in choosing seeds appropriate to local land and climate conditions, he says.
The company has promoted five to six hybrid rice breeds to plant in Liberia, selecting from more than 20 varieties. The breeds planted in Africa are always more resistant to high temperatures and local plant diseases and insect pests, Zhang says. "More training programs should help local farmers. It is only with advanced planting technology that the output of hybrid crops in African will continue to increase."
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