Broad prospects

regularly holding meetings and inviting agricultural officials, experts and scholars from both sides to share their development concepts and practical experience. The efforts facilitate the alignment of China’s five-year plans for rural economic and social development and agricultural modernization plans with Africa’s comprehensive agricultural development plans. They also enable China and African countries to learn from each other. In bilateral terms, China has signed memoranda of understanding or protocols with 16 African countries, covering various fields such as the seed industry, animal husbandry and agricultural machinery. China has also established agricultural cooperation commissions or working groups with these countries to launch agricultural policy exchanges of various kinds and synergize their agricultural development strategies, laying a solid institutional foundation for win-win agricultural cooperation.

China attaches great importance on actively promoting agricultural technology exchanges with African countries. To date, it has established 20 agricultural technology demonstration centers in 19 African countries to showcase China’s advanced agricultural products and technologies, build platforms for multilateral and bilateral technological cooperation and explore market-oriented and commercially sustainable operations. China has dispatched 724 agricultural experts, vocational education teachers and high-level consultants in 71 groups to 37 African countries to pass on their farming management expertise and help local farmers improve their comprehensive capacity in agricultural production. Based on the “10+10” partnership plan between Chinese and African agricultural research institutes, joint studies and research have been launched around new products, technologies and equipment suitable for Africa’s conditions. So far, China has launched trial growing of more than 300 agricultural products in various African countries and passed on more than 500 practical technologies to them, benefiting about 1 million farming households and providing important scientific and technological support and services to Africa’s agricultural development.

Thanks to their joint efforts, China and African countries have witnessed rapid growth in agricultural investment and trade in agricultural products. In 2017, China-africa trade in agricultural products exceeded $6 billion, up 185.3 percent over 2006. Of this amount, China imported $2.94 billion worth of agricultural products from Africa such as oilseeds, cotton and linen fibers and beverages, an increase of 143 percent. The sound trading relationship has created favorable conditions for Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa. By the end of 2017, Chinese enterprises had invested in 117 agricultural projects, each with more than 5 million yuan ($732,000) of investment in Africa, covering more than two thirds of the countries on the continent with the investment stock totaling 14.83 billion yuan ($2.17 billion). The projects covered areas such as crop farming, agricultural produce processing and fisheries. Sound and sustained development of economic and trading cooperation in agriculture has increased the supply of agricultural products in both Chinese and African markets, and promoted optimization of agricultural production capacity and transformation and upgrading of the farming sector in Africa.

Since 2006, agricultural personnel exchanges between China and African countries have become extensive. China has launched 337 training programs involving more than 57,000 agricultural officials, technicians and vocational education students from African countries. These programs have helped create a large talent pool for Africa’s agricultural development and fostered numerous friendship envoys, greatly enhancing mutual understanding and the traditional friendly relationship between Chinese and African peoples, thus consolidating the public support for cooperation in agriculture. China signed a letter of intent on South-south cooperation with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2006, becoming the first country to establish a South-south cooperation strategic alliance with the organization. It also established a trust fund to support Southsouth cooperation in agriculture. Since the fund went into effect in 2008, China has been cooperating with FAO to launch tripartite South-south cooperation projects in Africa and has held agricultural technology demonstration activities through more than 60 projects on the continent, gaining recognition from African governments and peoples and winning wide praise from the international community. The FAO director general has on many occasions spoken highly of China’s leading role in South-south cooperation in agriculture.

Through decades of development, China has been constantly improving the quality and benefit of agricultural development with distinctive features and outstanding advantages in aspects such as resource conditions, market demands and scientific and technological information. African countries, with urgent need of cooperation, have very high expectations of sharing China’s achievements and experience in agricultural development.

The potential is huge for China and Africa to jointly cope with the global food crises and ensure food security, a major global concern that underlines the need for China and African countries to develop agriculture. Currently, agricultural development worldwide faces acute problems such as frequent climate disasters, aggravating resource constraints and escalating market fluctuations. Some African countries are frequently stricken by food crises. Enhancing the overall food production capacity and increasing food supply remain at the top of African countries’ agendas. Agricultural resources are scarce in China, the world’s most populous country. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to food security and has always given top priority

Since reform and opening up began 40 years ago, China has relied on innovation as the driving force for agricultural modernization. It has taken a range of measures to promote innovation based on imported technology and indigenous research results.