China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation

Background 

Under the leadership of AGRA’s Board and its Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA), AGRA launched its China-Africa Agricultural Cooperation Strategy in 2017. The goal is to work with partners in China and Africa to help leverage China’s public and private resource (funding, product and technology, knowledge) to catalyze, scale and sustain inclusive agriculture transformation in Africa.

As an African-led organization that works on national, system and farmer levels, AGRA has a unique value proposition to the Chinese government and private sector as a strategic and implementing partner on the ground to:

• Help China understand African countries’ need; enhance connectivity between African and Chinese actors
• Support China-Africa technology transfer and investment promotion by strengthening the linkage with local consortia of government, farmers and local private sector
• Strengthen African governments’ design and implementation capacity for China-Africa cooperation projects
• Leverage our network and convening power to share South-South cooperation learnings and scale-up workable models on high-level platforms

AGRA has already started investing in and gained huge traction in our China-Africa cooperation strategy. We have focused on five anchor areas:

South-South Cooperation knowledge sharing and platform building

• China-Africa Rice cooperation
• China-Africa mechanization and agricultural value chain development cooperation
• China-Africa youth capacity building and agricultural extension cooperation
• China-Africa Digital for agriculture cooperation

Select Achievements

AGRA has established close partnerships with various Chinese and international NGOs, think tanks and research institutions, including, but not limited to, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the China Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China Academy of Science, China Agricultural University, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) China Country Office, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) East and Central Asia Office, the World Bank, and others.

Through this partnership, AGRA is, for instance working with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to document innovative rural development solutions in China in partnership with IFPRI Central and East office, and to support the promotion and uptake in Africa and other South-South Cooperation countries. Further, AGRA has made a grant to a Hubei company to demonstrate Chinese climate smart agriculture and irrigation technology in Mozambique to support Mozambique rice value chain development and strengthen public private partnership.

At African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2018 held in Kigali, Rwanda, we successfully hosted a Chinese delegation led by Hon. Wu Hongyao, a member of the CPC Leading Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Mr. Wu delivered an important speech at the AGRF Presidential Summit on the final day in front of Heads of State, 30 ministers and 2000 delegates. At 2019 AGRF held in Accra Ghana, more than 15 key partners from China attended the forum, from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), China Academy of Agricultural Sciences  (CAAS), IFPRI, Peking University, China Agricultural University (CAU), key private sector partners such as CGCOC Agriculture, StarTimes, and Shandong Wuzheng among others.