By Wole Fatunbi
The President of China, Xi Jinping, once said, “If the world enjoys reasonable development, then the two big populations in the world must experience development.” This is true for China, which has succeeded in reducing poverty to the barest minimum, and ensuring industrial and infrastructural development over the last 40 years. Africa, on the other hand, seems to be struggling with its growth, trying to craft a pathway out of poverty, lack of infrastructure, youth unemployment, leadership crises, and social and political upheavals.
Africa has the opportunity to learn and find inspiration from China’s development pathways in many areas, including its agriculture. While there are apparent differences in the natural resource base of the two continents and the socio-political structures, the place of science and technology in orchestrating development is a unifying point. This underscores the development and operations of the China-Africa Innovation Cooperation and Development Forum. The forum has fostered cooperation in numerous areas including agriculture. Today, China is the largest trading partner of 55 countries in Africa and the biggest supplier of industrial equipment and machinery.
At the aegis of the 2024 China-Africa Innovation Cooperation and Development Forum in Wuhan City, China. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the Africa Academy of Sciences (AAS) launched a significant initiative, tagged “China-Africa Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Alliance (CAASTIA). The CAASTIA vision is to enhance modern agricultural development to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa. The alliance aims to deliver innovations, integrate agricultural research and industry resources from the two continents for mutual benefits, build cooperation on the value chain development of major commodities, and focus on common concerns of food security, biosecurity, green growth, and climate change.
CAASTIA will be hosted in Africa and China by its two co-founders, the AAS with the secretariat in Nairobi Kenya and CAAS with its headquarters in Beijing China. The supervising authorities in China are the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA); Ministry of Science and Technologies (MOST) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). In turn, the Department of Agriculture, Rural Economy (DARBE) of the Africa Union Commission (AUC) will be the Africa supervisor.
The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) will be the key implementing partner of CAASTIA in Africa. The core activities of CAASTIA will commence in 2025, starting with the engagement of willing partner organizations and the enactment of its charter.
In an engagement with the president of CAAS, Prof Wu Kongning, during a visit to the CAAS campus in Beijing, Prof Wole Fatunbi, the Ag Director of Research and Innovation in FARA, emphasized the need for research collaboration to develop and or adapt small machinery equipped with robotics functions for smart tillage, weeding and other operations on the farm in Africa.
Prof Wole Fatunbi, Ag. Director of Research and Innovation, FARA
This will align with the continental craving to modernize Africa’s smallholder agriculture in alignment with the nature-based approaches that ensure soil health, biodiversity conservation, and the maintenance of Africa’s natural resource base.
The implementation of the China-Africa Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Alliance (CAASTIA) will kick-off in the first quarter of 2025.
2 Comments
Tremendous work is being done by both DARBE and FARA. Thank you Prof.Wole for your Article and good and rich ideas.
This initiative is laudable. The new alliance CAASTIA, is a step in right direction for the development African Agriculture. Africa has a lot to learn and benefit from China. Many thanks to FARA for always taking the lead. Looking forward to seeing the implementation of this vision. Thank you Prof Fatumbi.