Chinese Agricultural Aid Programs in Africa

By Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

 

During the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006, the Chinese government pledged to build 10 agricultural technology demonstration centres, or ATDCs, across Africa. Funded by China’s Ministry of Commerce, the figure has now risen to 25.

The mission of these centres is to modernize African farming while also giving Chinese companies a foothold in new markets. 

Chinese commitments to African agriculture are growing fast; they increased almost five-fold between 2000 and 2013, to more than $300 million, according to estimates by AidData, which tracks development funds around the world. 

Each year around 10,000 African officials are trained in China, and agriculture and development policy are prominent.

The ATDCs “highlight the Chinese approach to development cooperation that does not separate aid, diplomacy, and commerce,” according to Ian Scoones, who researches agriculture and development at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex in England.

They provide alternative development pathways for agricultural technology cooperation in Africa, and a very different vision to established western bilateral aid programs.

Why are African countries interested in partnering with China in agricultural development? 

Isaac Lawther, who teaches in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, maintains that they seek to partner with China because Beijing can offer intermediary agricultural technologies that enable them to implement aspects of their own domestic agricultural development plans. 

At the ATDC in Huye, Rwanda, Chinese agronomists teach local farmers the benefits of mushrooms. They grow quickly, even in bad soil, and don’t take a lot of room. They are rich in protein and other nutrients. 

At the end of five days of training, the students take a cooking class where they learn how to make things with mushrooms, which have not been part of the traditional diet of most Rwandans.

“Western countries donate money; this is what we do,” Hu Yingping, director of the centre, told Lily Kuo, a reporter for the digital global business news publication Quartz, last year. Hu and his team have already trained more than 1,000 Rwandans.

Eventually these mushrooms will be sold to surrounding African countries as well as Europe and China. And the companies selling them will be Chinese, or Rwandese companies working with Chinese partners.

The ATDC in Ethiopia is located at Ginchi. Chinese staff workers sent by the Guangxi Bagui Agricultural Technology Co. work together with Ambo University, the Ambo Agricultural Science and Technology Institution and other organizations.

The Ethiopian centre is teaching agricultural mechanization, soil improvement, water conservancy irrigation, seedling cultivation, and fish farming.

In 2016 Debont Co. Ltd., the Chinese agricultural company running the five year old Gwebi ATDC, signed an agreement with the Zimbabwe Ministry of Agriculture in Harare to set up eight satellite agricultural demonstration centres and experimental farms across the country for the sharing of farming expertise and providing training to locals.

An estimated 3,000 hectares of land would be cultivated by local farmers trained by Chinese and equipped with farming facilities including the irrigation system and made-in-China tractors. Some 10,000 local farmers wil be trained to use the farming facilities.

“We will promote the use of solar-powered irrigation facilities as a way to help local farmers cushion the impact of abnormal weather patterns, so they can make the migration to modern farming which relies less heavily on weather,” Debont’s project manager Yu Xianzeng explained.

In Tanzania, Chinese experts from the ATDC centre located in Dakawa, have been carrying out collaboration trials in the field of rice and maize, in partnership with scientists from Tanzania's Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives. 

Most of its agricultural experts come from China’s Chongqing Academy of Agricultural Science.

Dakawa is one of Tanzania’s major areas of rice production. The Chinese farming techniques have resulted in a 20 to 30 per cent improvement in productivity for the local rice varieties, compared to traditional methods. 

The ATDC’s manager, Professor Chen Hualin, added that the Chinese rice varieties not only have high yields, but also have good tastes.

These agricultural centres, then, serve a dual purpose, observed Kuo: they promote China’s image in Africa as a partner that encourages self-reliance, while also providing a training ground for Chinese companies looking to expand.

While the overall direct impact on agricultural development in Africa still appears limited, the training programs build relationships with African officials, and so project “soft power” in Chinese foreign policy.