FAO, China share same vision, determination for food security

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Publish time: 26th September, 2016      Source: Xinhua News Agency
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ROME, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Using its successful experience in poverty and hunger eradication to help other developing countries, China's longstanding bilateral South-South cooperation program has been a remarkable example to follow, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expert.

 

"On the journey to food and nutrition security and sustainable agricultural and rural development, FAO and China share the same vision, determination and dedication," Liu Zhongwei, coordinator for the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, told Xinhua.

 

"The programme today supports sustainable and innovative agricultural and rural development in 28 countries, most of them in Africa," he added.

 

Supported countries included Ethiopia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria in Africa; Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan in Asia.

 

The joint program currently involves total investments worth 80 million U.S. dollars, and has allowed fielding over 1,000 experts in Africa, Asia, the Pacific region and Latin America.

 

Such efforts were helping increase food security and nutrition, and improving the livelihoods of over one million family farmers and small-scale producers, according to Liu.

 

The expert's remarks came shortly after the International South-South Cooperation Day, which the UN celebrates every year on Sept. 12 to mark the adoption of the Buenos Aires plan of action for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries in 1978.

 

The number of South-South Cooperation (SSC) projects, and the volume of resources mobilized, has been increasing steadily since 2012. Over 40 SSC projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have been overall facilitated up to the end of 2015, FAO said.

 

Among major contributors were Brazil with 21.1 million U.S. dollars, Mexico with 15 million, Venezuela with 12 million, and China with 10.3 million.

 

Considered a major player in this kind of cooperation, and strongly engaged with FAO since the SSC Programme was established in 1996, China provided a further 50 million U.S. dollars contribution (included in the overall 80 million total investments).

 

Another proof of Beijing's steady commitment in this field was the renewal of its partnership with FAO through a new memorandum of understanding, which was signed alongside the G20 agricultural ministers meeting held in the Chinese northwest city of Xi'an in early June.

 

According to the FAO expert, the China-Nigeria SSC programme provided a successful example of such commitment.

 

"The impact of a major FAO initiative for food security can be seen throughout Nigeria, where a group of Chinese experts and technicians are working through the SSC arrangement launched by FAO," Liu said.

 

The project entailed two phases: the first phase saw some 500 Chinese technicians carry out over 3,700 field visits, with more than 500 demonstrations and 200 micro-projects launched.

 

New technologies were introduced, and Chinese experts exchanged best practices and shared knowledge with their Nigerian counterparts in technical areas such as irrigation, crop production, livestock production, aquaculture and apiculture, according to FAO.

 

"This has led not only to improved yields and livelihoods, but also to replication by farmers' organizations that had been supported by the initiative," Liu said.

 

A China-Uganda SSC project provided another example. "Some 31 Chinese experts and technicians have been sent to Uganda since 2012 to provide technical assistance in crop production, aquaculture, horticulture, livestock and agribusiness," Liu said.

 

"The team successfully transferred 25 new technologies, and introduced 17 new varieties such as hybrid rice, foxtail millet and maize, as well as four pieces of agricultural equipment and tools," he added.

 

According to FAO, the new technologies and varieties brought into the eastern African country were showing quick results in terms of improved food crops and increased income for farmers.

 

The first phase of the SSC project facilitated a Chinese investment worth 220 million U.S. dollars to Uganda, which was aimed at establishing an agricultural industry zone in rice production, poultry, horticulture cultivation, and aquaculture, FAO said.

 

Priority areas of phase two were identified in horticulture (the practice of growing plants), cereals production, aquaculture, livestock and agribusiness.

 

"All of them will be supported through sustainable business models," Liu said, adding that further resources would be needed to expand this experience, along with an increase of trade linkages.

 

Overall, more than 6.6 million U.S. dollars have been mobilized in SSC projects in the first half of 2016, according to FAO data. The figure was equivalent to 45 percent of the total mobilized in 2015.