info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Image from Grow Africa
Rice is the main or alternative food crop in many African countries. African countries suffer from insufficient production and consumption gaps and rely heavily on imports. African countries are willing to learn more about Chinese agricultural technology, especially the rice industry, to address food security issues on the African continent.
Salifou Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso minister for Agriculture and Hydro-Agricultural Development said that China has been a great support in providing technology and preferential trade policies in the agricultural sector.
"We are especially keen on learning from China's high-end technologies to help our agriculture," Ouedarogo said. "With the help of drones and other monitoring technologies, our farmers can get to know exactly when and how much water is needed for their crops."
In 2018, China also signed a tariff agreement with Burkina Faso, which exempts tariffs on 97 percent of the country's exports to China.
"We are very grateful for the preferential policy," Quedraogo said. "Our farmers and manufacturers are very motivated and excited to know their products will have a market of over 1.4 billion people."
Ouedraogo, along with some 10,000 guests and traders, including those from 53 African countries, attended the three-day first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province.
During the expo, the Joint Initiative on Strengthening South-South and Triangular Cooperation in China-Africa Rice Value Chain, proposed by seven organizations, including the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center and the African Union, was released.
According to the joint initiative, African countries and China, along with partners of the initiative, will review China's technologies in the rice industry, and carry out experimental plants to localize China's aided agricultural technology.
Food security has long been a challenge faced by the continent. A UN report said that by 2050, 70 percent more food is needed to feed the global population. The Food and Agriculture Organization said out of the 86 countries that are food deficient, 43 are in Africa.
China has been working to provide new varieties and technology in agriculture to African countries since 2006, and, so far, the efforts have started to bear fruit. In Madagascar, a hybrid crop variety developed by Chinese scientists has a yield of 10.8 tons per hectare, far exceeding the yield of local crops by an average of 3 tons.
Chinese experts and technicians have carried out more than 300 small-scale projects in nine African countries, promoted 450 agricultural technologies, and trained nearly 30,000 local farmers and technicians.
