Celebrating 100th anniversary of CPC | China’s agricultural technology transfer helps Africa improve food security

Upon the request of Burkina Faso, a Chinese team arrived in the country to carry out agricultural technical assistance, less than one month after China resumed diplomatic relations with the country on May 26, 2018.

So far, the team has completed more than 10 demonstration projects in three fields, namely rice, water conservancy and agricultural machinery. They have developed 2,000 hectares of depressions, built demonstration areas of 100 hectares and five water conservancy projects. It also trained more than 2,000 personnel for the country.

These efforts achieved a yield of 5.8 tons of rice per hectare in the demonstration areas, an increase of 81.25 percent year on year.

In Bagré, clear water flowed from the reservoir to farmland along the ditches newly constructed by Chinese experts as the China-aided rural land improvement project was completed in the town. 

Kebo, head of the Bagré center, witnessed the changes from rough dry land to a flat farmland with irrigation facilities in just a few months. 

"The major difficulty we faced in rice planting was the uneven land, and it's hard to keep the water," he said, and now they were both gone thanks to the sound drainage and irrigation facilities built by the Chinese team.

Burkina Faso's Agricultural Minister Salif Ouédraogo spoke highly of China-Africa agricultural cooperation at the first China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo.

What the team had done brought continuous benefits to the local people, and also won friendship and praise from them, The Chinese experts were called "Chinese family" by the local people. 

Sending a large number of agricultural experts to Africa, China aims to transfer its technologies and help African farmers improve agricultural production, which in turn will enable Africa to become self-sufficient in food in the next two to three years, Ouédraogo said, adding that the technology transfer is priceless for Africa, and China is playing an exemplary role worldwide.