Qi Gubo, China Agricultural University International Seminar: The role of South-South Cooperation in Agricultural Development in Africa - opportunities and challenges. 17 May 2012. More info: http://www.future-agricultures.org/events/south-south-cooperation

2. Agricultural Cooperation between China and Africa
 Changing profile of
agricultural cooperation
between China and Africa,
and challenges facing
 Lessons from China’s own
smallholder-led agricultural
development experiences
Qi Gubo
China Agricultural University
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3. Changing profile of China-Africa Agricultural
Cooperation
 1959 to the 1970s: dominated by development assistance, with the
Chinese government offering grant aid to African countries and
helped with the construction of farms, agricultural experiment
stations and extension services, water conservation projects and
technical expertise.
 Late 1970s to the end of the 1990s, the state enterprises with an
investment contract system was adopted for some assistance
projects. In addition to non-reimbursable assistance, concessional
loans gradually became a major part of agricultural assistance to
Africa.
 From 2000 onwards, Sino-African agricultural cooperation is
progressively turning from a project-based mode to a more strategic
and sustainable form of institutional development. In addition to
bilateral aid and economic cooperation, China is actively applying
the United Nations system’s Framework on South–South cooperation
mechanism and other multilateral mechanisms to extend agricultural
assistance to Africa.
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4. Main Approaches of cooperation
 Development cooperation
--Farm construction
--Experimental Stations and Agricultural
Technology Demonstration Centres
--Agricultural Technology Expert Programme
--Agricultural training
--Student exchange
--Provision of Food Aid and Material Assistance
 Economic cooperation
 Cooperation in trade
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5. Challenges for effective cooperation
 How to make balance between public and private
benefits when ventures are playing more and more
important roles
 How to make the nexus of technology, institution, and
basic resources for integrated application
 Make businesses responsible for technology extension
and knowledge distribution
 Dispatching experts and technicians working in the field
to meet the needs of partner countries, based on their
own natural resources and production patterns
 Equal attraction for investors to enter into agriculture,
considering low IRR comparing with other industrials
 Novel discourse or definition of agricultural cooperation?
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6. Lessons from China’s Smallholder-led Agricultural
Development
 Continued agriculture with small holder farmers, results
in a farming model with intensive labor and technology
inputs to save land
 The swift agricultural growth in China has been boosted
by continual technology innovation and application;
farming is centered with grain crops, which had
benefited from Green Revolution
 Land reclamation and intensive inputs undermined the
resources base and imposed negative environmental
impacts
 Completed and systematic state agri. research and
extension system strongly support the smallholders
farming, keeping consistency with the strategic
objective of food security in China
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7. Possible references for Africa
 Food production as the top priority in agricultural
development and national development strategies
 Enhancement of local capability of developing and
implementing agricultural development strategies, in
which external learning, such as student exchange
and officers’ training should be more adaptive to
concrete situation of resources and interests
 Smallholder farming activities need to be changed,
considering its own labour surplus, and necessary
external support; and a systematic technology and
management support could be integration of
government, NGOs and private sectors contribution,
though institutionalization of this synergy would be a
big challenge
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