‘Backyard model’ for Africa
Agricultural stint in China teaches Malawi’s students how to enhance grain yields in homeland
African students who had acquired knowledge through their participation in a Chinese agricultural development program have returned to their home countries, aiming to use what they have learned to help local farmers increase grain yields.
The students participated in the Science and Technology Backyard (STB) program, which was launched in 2009 at the China Agricultural University (CAU) in Beijing. During the program, they conducted research in experimental fields in rural areas while working with Chinese farmers and using their acquired knowledge to help these farmers solve agricultural problems.
One of the students, 28-year-old Augustine Talababi Phiri from Malawi, was recently named head of an STB program in Lisasadzi, Kasungu district, in the central region of the Southeast African country.
“We are well on our way to establishing successful STBs that will empower the smallholder farmers of Malawi with the knowledge and tools they need to shape their agricultural futures,” Phiri wrote in his work diary on Nov 6, a day after returning to his home country.
As a graduate student at CAU, Phiri began studying for his master’s degree in September last year and then joined a Sino-Africa STB project in Quzhou county in Handan, Hebei province.
Majoring in resource and environmental sciences and plant protection, he witnessed or participated in every stage of wheat production in the villages in Quzhou, from land preparation and the sowing of wheat seeds to crop management and harvesting.
The first STB program in Malawi was launched in October last year. In early November, Phiri and five other
students returned home with a mission to launch and manage more programs in their country.
On Nov 7 and 8, three newly established STBs were unveiled in Malawi. So far, the four programs have carried out training sessions for local farmers and promoted agricultural technologies such as organic compost, which can improve soil quality.
“In the initial stages, we are working with 30 farmers, helping them optimize farming technologies, including optimizing seeding,” Phiri said, adding that the backyard model from China
will be further promoted in Africa.
Phiri, who used to be an agronomist in Malawi’s agricultural sector, said that about 80 percent of the country’s 20 million people are smallholder farmers.
Due to poor soil quality, limited access to fertilizers, and a lack of modern agricultural technologies, the yield for Malawi’s main crop, maize, is relatively low. Many farmers are not growing enough food to sustain themselves, Phiri said in an interview with Hebei Daily.
In 2019, CAU launched the SinoAfrica
STB project in Quzhou to cultivate young technology talent from African nations, targeting the pressing production issues faced by smallholder farmers.
In Quzhou, Phiri noticed that farmers often sought help from the program, and the teachers and students were always out in the fields, conducting research with the farmers to determine how to best improve yields.
Phiri and other African students also engaged in conversations with farmers in the fields during their Quzhou stint.
Jiao Xiaoqiang, an associate professor in charge of the Sino-Africa project, said such engagement is vital.
“The core of the project lies in bringing technicians and farmers together. Only by truly participating in this process and understanding how to disseminate technology to farmers can they make a real impact when they return to Africa,” Jiao told Hebei Daily.
To date, the Sino-Africa project has nurtured 72 graduate students in agricultural studies from more than 10 African countries, including Malawi, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
Phiri has already started using the Chinese agricultural development model in Africa.
“I believe the STB model will yield results here and help guarantee that more of our people will have enough to eat,” he said.