A view of the China-Zambian Friendship Farm near Lusaka, Zambia. (Xinhua photo)
ACCRA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's support to food security in Africa has been practical and effective through bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, a UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official has said.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Sourakata Bangoura, South-South and Triangular Cooperation Officer at the FAO African Regional Office in Accra, said China has been an active supporter to FAO's initiatives.
China and FAO signed in June a 50 million U.S. dollar agreement to support developing countries building sustainable food systems and inclusive agricultural value chains.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Saturday a 2 billion fund to support South-South cooperation and assist developing countries in fighting poverty.
A demonstration farm run by Chinese agricultural experts to Tanzania. (Xinhua photo)
Developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia stand to benefit immensely from all the efforts China has made, Bangoura said.
Since FAO's South-South Cooperation initiative was established in 1996, China has been one of the major players in supporting Africa and other developing countries with expertise, inputs and techniques.
In Africa, specifically, Chinese experts were deployed to about 20 countries, including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Malawi, Uganda and Senegal.
Bangoura said the technical support helped a great deal in ensuring increased yields in the production of food crops, including rice, millet, as well as horticultural products, aqua-culture, livestock farming, agriculture mechanization, food processing, marketing, storage and preservation.
A commercial farm run by a Chinese company in Mozambique. (Xinhua photo)
In Nigeria, Chinese experts and technicians were deployed to help the government in food crops production, thus helping to increase yields from one ton of rice per hectare to about four tons of rice per hectares, said the official.
In Kenya, the ongoing building of a China-funded laboratory in a Kenyan university is to enhance agricultural research and innovation.
Similar stories run through all 20 countries that received technical assistance from the China government.
Besides providing high yielding seeds and equipment, China also supported the beneficiary countries through irrigation facilities and techniques, water harvesting and preservation to ensure an all-year round farming.
A commercial farm run by a Chinese company in Angola. (Xinhua photo)
"With all these, what have been significant are the high breed seeds and seedlings, low-cost fish processing equipment, new techniques and technology, and direct contact between the Chinese officials and the African farmers," Bangoura said.
Due to the successes chalked in these countries, all of them (about 20 beneficiary countries) have asked for a continuation of the programs for their people to deepen agriculture development and food security, the FAO official told Xinhua.
The reason for this success, he said, was that Chinese South-South cooperation took into account priority sectors.
"It is demand-driven and also has demonstrations, introduction of farm input and machinery, seed, technique, so it is a whole package," he said.
