Technology transfer is solution for food security in Africa
By Tang Lixia |
Updated: 2018-08-20 17:25
Editor's note: This article is part of the Preview Policy Report for the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, to be published by China Watch, China Daily's think tank.
After attaining independence, many African countries shifted the focus of development to agriculture, and some countries began to vigorously promote agricultural development. Agricultural production in Africa increased significantly in the 1960s, with average annual growth rate of 2.7 percent. With the development of grain crop production, Africa’s self-sufficiency rate reached 96 percent during 1962-64, and 83 percent during 1972-74.
However, due to severe drought in the mid-1970s, agricultural growth slowed significantly and Africa’s food self-sufficiency rate declined to 60-70 percent in the 1980s and 50 percent in the 1990s.
Moreover, food imports increased year by year, with grain imports increasing by 8.4 percent annually during 1970-80. In the 1980s, Africa’s annual grain import was 20.4 million tons, which cost foreign exchange of about $5 billion.
From the 1980s to the 1990s, despite the fluctuation in grain imports, Africa’s food consumption remained dependent on imports. In this period, 45 percent of wheat and 80 percent of rice were imported. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics, from 2014 to 2016, about 30 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa were affected by severe food insecurity, which was highest in the world.
Ever since it first provided 10,000 tons of food aid to Guinea in 1959, China has continuously endeavored to help strengthen food security in Africa. From the 1960s to early 1980s, China supported the construction of 87 agricultural and water conservancy projects. During this period, almost half of China’s foreign agricultural aid projects were in Africa, including agricultural technology experiment stations, extension stations and farms.
In the 1980s and the 1990s, due to reforms in China’s national development strategy and foreign assistance, China's agricultural aid to Africa focused on the sustainable transformation of previous aid projects.
Since 2000, agriculture has remained one of the priorities of China’s policy in Africa. Under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China has adopted different modalities to promote agricultural development. To date, China has established 23 agricultural technology demonstration centers to showcase its agricultural production system.
According to the white paper China’s Foreign Aid (2010-2012) more than 1,000 Chinese agricultural experts were dispatched to Africa, and nearly 7,000 agricultural officials and technicians from Africa were invited to China to join approximately 300 research and training programs. Additionally, over 400 Chinese teachers traveled to Ethiopia to train local teachers to empower agricultural vocational and technical education.
China has also worked with other donors like the UK, the US and Germany, multilateral organizations like FAO, World Food Programme and World Bank, and private philanthropic organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore trilateral cooperation to promote agricultural development. Under the China-FAO South-South Cooperation framework, China has sent about 300 agricultural experts and technicians to work in 10 African countries and invited about 500 agricultural officials and technicians to China.
Chinese aid programs cover a wide range of sectors, including management of crop cultivation, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries; national policy-making on rural development and food security, and agricultural cooperation among developing countries; and agricultural value chain issues, such as technology dissemination and the processing, storage, marketing and distribution of agricultural products.
Technology is the most applicable element
The common core feature of these diverse programs is technology. In the mid-late 20th century, China hoped to transfer to Africa its basic agricultural production technology system based on cooperative and collective agricultural production and the "Eight-Point Charter for Agriculture" through the construction of big farms and experimental stations.
More recently, while mentioning China’s agricultural cooperation with Africa, a number of policy documents emphasize the importance of technology and make clear that the focus of China’s agricultural aid to Africa is technical cooperation.
"China’s policy documents on foreign aid to Africa", for example, clearly proposes to "strengthen cooperation in land development, farming and breeding technology, food security, agricultural machinery and agricultural product processing, strengthen agricultural technology cooperation, actively hold trainings of practical agricultural technology, and implement experimental and demonstration projects of agricultural technology in Africa". An increasing number of cases in Africa have proven that Chinese agricultural technology, especially labor-intensive and low-cost technology, can be adapted to agricultural production conditions in Africa.
In Butaleja district of Uganda, Chinese experts in the 1970s introduced seedling and transplanting technology of paddy rice, and this district later became the main rice production region of Uganda, with local farmers still using the technology. In Peapea village in the Morogoro area of Tanzania, local farmers adopted labor-intensive technology recommended by Chinese experts on maize production and increased their harvest by up to three times.
In Ethiopia, Uganda, Liberia, Mali, Malawi and other host countries for China-FAO South-South Cooperation programs, agricultural officials, technicians and local small-holder farmers appreciate that Chinese experts have brought practical and easy-to-use technologies. A simple and inexpensive maize sheller machine invented by Chinese agricultural experts is very popular in several countries.
A technocratic rationality has therefore become entrenched in Chinese aid to African countries. It prioritizes productivity improvement and economic development through technological solutions. Chinese solutions for food security in Africa are rooted in China’s development experience. The evolution of these solutions can be seen in China’s domestic development transition – such as the peer-to-peer parallel sharing promoted by Professor Li Xiaoyun from China Agriculture University, one of the leading experts on China-Africa agricultural cooperation.
China’s food security solutions in Africa have produced many successful cases, but these are often difficult to be disseminated to wider areas and formulated into autonomous development initiatives.
The Chinese government's mobilization capacity, the history of agricultural technology, the technology promotion systems facilitated by considerable government subsidies, and a complete industrial system for agricultural investment, are all important prerequisites for promoting new agricultural technology in China – which are, to some extent, missing in African countries.
Tang Lixia is professor of College of Humanities and Development Studies/China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture, China Agricultural University. The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
Editor's note: This article is part of the Preview Policy Report for the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, to be published by China Watch, China Daily's think tank.
After attaining independence, many African countries shifted the focus of development to agriculture, and some countries began to vigorously promote agricultural development. Agricultural production in Africa increased significantly in the 1960s, with average annual growth rate of 2.7 percent. With the development of grain crop production, Africa’s self-sufficiency rate reached 96 percent during 1962-64, and 83 percent during 1972-74.
However, due to severe drought in the mid-1970s, agricultural growth slowed significantly and Africa’s food self-sufficiency rate declined to 60-70 percent in the 1980s and 50 percent in the 1990s.
Moreover, food imports increased year by year, with grain imports increasing by 8.4 percent annually during 1970-80. In the 1980s, Africa’s annual grain import was 20.4 million tons, which cost foreign exchange of about $5 billion.
From the 1980s to the 1990s, despite the fluctuation in grain imports, Africa’s food consumption remained dependent on imports. In this period, 45 percent of wheat and 80 percent of rice were imported. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics, from 2014 to 2016, about 30 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa were affected by severe food insecurity, which was highest in the world.
Ever since it first provided 10,000 tons of food aid to Guinea in 1959, China has continuously endeavored to help strengthen food security in Africa. From the 1960s to early 1980s, China supported the construction of 87 agricultural and water conservancy projects. During this period, almost half of China’s foreign agricultural aid projects were in Africa, including agricultural technology experiment stations, extension stations and farms.
In the 1980s and the 1990s, due to reforms in China’s national development strategy and foreign assistance, China's agricultural aid to Africa focused on the sustainable transformation of previous aid projects.
Since 2000, agriculture has remained one of the priorities of China’s policy in Africa. Under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, China has adopted different modalities to promote agricultural development. To date, China has established 23 agricultural technology demonstration centers to showcase its agricultural production system.
According to the white paper China’s Foreign Aid (2010-2012) more than 1,000 Chinese agricultural experts were dispatched to Africa, and nearly 7,000 agricultural officials and technicians from Africa were invited to China to join approximately 300 research and training programs. Additionally, over 400 Chinese teachers traveled to Ethiopia to train local teachers to empower agricultural vocational and technical education.
China has also worked with other donors like the UK, the US and Germany, multilateral organizations like FAO, World Food Programme and World Bank, and private philanthropic organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to explore trilateral cooperation to promote agricultural development. Under the China-FAO South-South Cooperation framework, China has sent about 300 agricultural experts and technicians to work in 10 African countries and invited about 500 agricultural officials and technicians to China.
Chinese aid programs cover a wide range of sectors, including management of crop cultivation, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries; national policy-making on rural development and food security, and agricultural cooperation among developing countries; and agricultural value chain issues, such as technology dissemination and the processing, storage, marketing and distribution of agricultural products.
Technology is the most applicable element
The common core feature of these diverse programs is technology. In the mid-late 20th century, China hoped to transfer to Africa its basic agricultural production technology system based on cooperative and collective agricultural production and the "Eight-Point Charter for Agriculture" through the construction of big farms and experimental stations.
More recently, while mentioning China’s agricultural cooperation with Africa, a number of policy documents emphasize the importance of technology and make clear that the focus of China’s agricultural aid to Africa is technical cooperation.
"China’s policy documents on foreign aid to Africa", for example, clearly proposes to "strengthen cooperation in land development, farming and breeding technology, food security, agricultural machinery and agricultural product processing, strengthen agricultural technology cooperation, actively hold trainings of practical agricultural technology, and implement experimental and demonstration projects of agricultural technology in Africa". An increasing number of cases in Africa have proven that Chinese agricultural technology, especially labor-intensive and low-cost technology, can be adapted to agricultural production conditions in Africa.
In Butaleja district of Uganda, Chinese experts in the 1970s introduced seedling and transplanting technology of paddy rice, and this district later became the main rice production region of Uganda, with local farmers still using the technology. In Peapea village in the Morogoro area of Tanzania, local farmers adopted labor-intensive technology recommended by Chinese experts on maize production and increased their harvest by up to three times.
In Ethiopia, Uganda, Liberia, Mali, Malawi and other host countries for China-FAO South-South Cooperation programs, agricultural officials, technicians and local small-holder farmers appreciate that Chinese experts have brought practical and easy-to-use technologies. A simple and inexpensive maize sheller machine invented by Chinese agricultural experts is very popular in several countries.
A technocratic rationality has therefore become entrenched in Chinese aid to African countries. It prioritizes productivity improvement and economic development through technological solutions. Chinese solutions for food security in Africa are rooted in China’s development experience. The evolution of these solutions can be seen in China’s domestic development transition – such as the peer-to-peer parallel sharing promoted by Professor Li Xiaoyun from China Agriculture University, one of the leading experts on China-Africa agricultural cooperation.
China’s food security solutions in Africa have produced many successful cases, but these are often difficult to be disseminated to wider areas and formulated into autonomous development initiatives.
The Chinese government's mobilization capacity, the history of agricultural technology, the technology promotion systems facilitated by considerable government subsidies, and a complete industrial system for agricultural investment, are all important prerequisites for promoting new agricultural technology in China – which are, to some extent, missing in African countries.
Tang Lixia is professor of College of Humanities and Development Studies/China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture, China Agricultural University. The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
