中国的技术与投资促进非洲农业

Food shortages are a pressing challenge for many African countries. In order to guarantee the food supply and speed up their agricultural development, many African countries are hoping to expand cooperation with China. With help from the Chinese government, many Chinese companies have built large farms and farming technology demonstration centers across Africa.

Late September - the start of the harvest in Zambia. Mwiinga Hebrew Jatto is busy harvesting wheat at a farm of Johnken Estates, the largest Chinese-invested agriculture company in Zambia. Through years of hard work, Mwiinga was promoted to senior technician and workshop manager, and the company also built a new house for him. He said this job has changed his life, and particularly for his children.

"My three daughters, the schools they went to are across Chisamba, some of the best schools in Zambia, so if I don’t come to this place, they will not go there. They went there because we came here," Mwiinga said.

Every year the company sends several technicians to train in China. In 2011, Mwiinga went for 20 days, and for him it was illuminating.

"The training was helpful very good. Everyone is scattered from the smallest farmers up to the biggest level. And simple machine for small farmers, medium machine, a lot of small combine harvesters, a lot of this and that. And then the government, the government policy is very good there to help everybody," Mwiinga said.

Johnken Estates was established in Zambia in 1994, co-funded by China National Agricultural Development Group Corporation and China-Africa Development Fund. After over 20 years of expansion, Johnken Estates now consists of one main farm and three branches, mainly planting crops and breeding livestock. Duan Changlong has been managing Johnken Estates since 2013. He said the company will always keep its commitment to local farmers and community.

"I think one of the most important things is the localized operation, which is the key to our survival. There are only 8 Chinese staff here, but we employ over 270 local farmers. Through their work at the farm, they can learn more advanced farming skills and technologies, which sets a good example for nearby farmers. They can transfer these technologies and skills in the future," said Duan Changlong, general manager of Johnken Estates Limited.

Duan Changlong said Johnken Estates has created over 3 thousand and 3 hundred jobs in Zambia since its establishment. And the farm production is very high. The annual number of layers is 100 thousand, and the daily egg production is 50 thousand. The company also produces over 4 thousand tons of crops for Lusaka’s market each year, which accounts for 8% of the capital’s annual production.

Wheat is the major crop at this farm. Through modern farming technologies and localization of operations, Johnken Estates' wheat production has seen a year-on-year increase. 2015 is expected to hit a record high. The Zambian government is expecting more agricultural cooperation with Chinese companies due to Johnken Estates' performance.

At harvest time, Given Lubinda, the Zambian Minister of Agriculture and livestock visited Johnken Estates. He was impressed by what Johnken has done, and gave his backing to Johnken expanding its operations.

"But there are many other Chinese companies that are like to be invited to invest in Zambia and learn what Johnken is doing. SO they can also come and invest in Zambia. I am currently discussing with some Chinese companies, to set up what we refer as a China-Zambia agriculture cooperation zone, which is going to have a training school for agriculture. It is going to provide machinery; it is going to provide inputs, but is also going to provide the much needed market for Zambian farmers," Lubinda said.

Besides these large scale farms, many Chinese companies also built a number of agricultural technology demonstration centers in African countries including Tanzania, Rwanda and Mozambique. Since 2012, this demonstration center in Tanzania has trained 1,100 Tanzanians, including agricultural officials, technicians and local farmers.

"Every month many local farmers come to our center and learn. We present them with all the advanced farming technologies and our latest seeds and their growth. The farmers are very happy to see that and hope to bring these seeds back to their farms for trial use," said Chen Hualin, director of Demo. Center for China Agricultural Technology.

Cooperation between China and Africa on agriculture has grown deeper and wider in recent years. Duan Changlong said many Zambians he works with want to have their own farms. And he hopes that those farmers in Johnken Estates could use all the technologies and skills they learnt to realize their hopes.