Growing benefits

China's agricultural cooperation with African countries has vast space for development and a promising future

The Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, held in Dakar in November, continued to focus on agriculture and food security as priorities for China-Africa cooperation, and has responded to the new situation by laying out a detailed blueprint for future China-Africa agricultural cooperation. The China-Africa Cooperation Vision 2035 also clearly states that China-Africa agricultural cooperation will extend to the whole industrial chain in the next 15 years. This is a new chapter in China-Africa agricultural cooperation.

With the food crisis further exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19, Africa's food production is struggling to meet its needs, and two-thirds of African countries are net food importers. The continent's rapidly growing populations will further boost the region's demand for food, representing the largest source of additional global food demand in the future. According to the African Development Bank, food imports by African countries will grow from $35 billion in 2015 to $110 billion by 2025 if no interventions are made. At the same time, Africa is uniquely endowed to develop agriculture, which is vital to the economy and livelihoods of African countries. Africa's cash crops such as coffee, tea, cocoa, horticultural crops and nuts are exported in large quantities outside the region. Although most are exported in the form of raw materials or primary products, they still generate scarce foreign exchange earnings for Africa.

China has a wealth of technology and experience in rapidly developing agriculture and solving food security problems, which it can share with African countries. China can also offer a huge market and development space for African cash crops, and African agricultural exports to China can help diversify China's sources of agricultural products. Chinese companies expanding their business overseas by investing in agriculture in Africa can also provide a boost to Africa's agricultural development and food security.

Under the framework of FOCAC, China has carried out extensive and in-depth agricultural cooperation with Africa through various channels, including aid, investment and trade.

Since the launch of FOCAC, China has continually boosted its assistance to support agriculture in Africa. This has included building a large number of agricultural processing plants and agricultural infrastructure such as farmland water conservancy facilities, rural roads and agricultural product storage facilities, providing materials such as seeds and fertilizers, dispatching agricultural experts to share China's agricultural technology and agricultural development experience, and helping African countries cultivate agricultural personnel by offering agricultural technology training courses and providing agricultural academic degrees education. China has also stepped up its efforts to provide food aid to famine-stricken African countries to meet their urgent food needs. At the same time, China has supported the construction of 23 agricultural technology demonstration centers in 22 African countries.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2019 African agricultural exports to China increased by more than 25 times compared to 2000. In 2020, a growing varieties of African agricultural products entered the Chinese market, despite a decline in the amount due to the pandemic. China is now Africa's second-largest agricultural export destination. African agricultural exports to China are dominated by oil crops and fruits, as well as industrial raw materials such as lint and rubber, especially some products that have undergone preliminary processing.

In addition, the mutual promotion effect of Chinese enterprises' investment in African agriculture and African agricultural exports to China has become increasingly prominent. Some Chinese enterprises have invested in African agriculture and obtained a stable source of raw agricultural materials, and have carried out preliminary processing locally to improve product quality and meet the access standards of the Chinese market. The initially processed African agricultural products are exported to China for further processing, which meets the needs of Chinese consumers and nurtures African agricultural brands.

In recent years, African countries have generally recognized the importance of agricultural development and have drawn up agricultural development plans, regarding agriculture as an important breakthrough to diversify their economic structures and accelerate poverty reduction. The African Union has also advocated the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and defined a common policy framework for agricultural development in Africa.

The new FOCAC initiative has designed future China-Africa agricultural cooperation from the perspective of the needs of the African side and the comparative advantages of the Chinese side in the following aspects:

First, China will increase its efforts to share agricultural technology with Africa and help African countries improve their agricultural technology. Specific measures include setting up a number of China-Africa joint centers for modern agrotechnology exchange, demonstration and training in China, giving full play to the role of agricultural technology demonstration centers already established in Africa, and accelerating the integration of technological achievements that meet the agricultural conditions of African countries. Second, China-Africa agricultural cooperation will cover the whole industrial chain, including production, storage, logistics, processing and marketing. Third, a number of initiatives will be taken to accelerate market access and e-commerce development to expand imports of agricultural products from Africa, and to promote Africa's localized processing capacity of its agricultural products to increase their added value. Fourth, China and Africa will work together to encourage Chinese enterprises to expand their investment in African agriculture through various means such as building agro-industrial parks. Fifth, the role of African partners will be further emphasized. For example, China will cooperate with the African Development Bank to exchange Chinese experience in processing agricultural products.

The author is a senior research fellow and deputy director of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn