Teaching African farmers to grow food
Author:
Release time:
2020-07-13
A photograph shows a group of people in colorful clothes, dancing enthusiastically, with smiles on their faces. They are villagers from Wasimba Village, Morogoro Region, Tanzania. Seven years ago, an agricultural technology team from China changed their lives dramatically.
“Before, we usually only harvested 8 bags of corn per acre. Now, using Chinese technology, we can harvest 10 to 16 bags,” said Adam, a villager from Wasimba Village. Such a harvest was unimaginable before.
Li Xiaoyun, president of the South-South Agricultural Cooperation College/“Belt and Road” Agricultural Cooperation College of China Agricultural University, showed us these vivid scenes in Africa using videos and pictures in his office.
Since 2012, with the support of the China International Poverty Reduction Center and the assistance of the China National Agricultural Development Group Tanzania branch, China Agricultural University has brought Chinese agricultural technology and experience to the vast fields of Tanzania. China's high-density corn planting technology has increased local corn yields by 2 to 3 times on average.
The China Agricultural University team has been rooted in the Tanzanian fields for 7 years, and they have many touching stories.
From extensive planting to intensive cultivation
In Tanzania, corn is the main crop; however, due to low productivity, grain yields are low, making it difficult to meet food needs.
Ma Junle, a doctoral student at China Agricultural University, described the scene he witnessed when he first arrived in Tanzania: “Many children there didn't have shoes; they walked barefoot through mud puddles to the river to fetch water.” Many young people like Ma Junle followed Li Xiaoyun's footsteps and set foot on Tanzanian soil. The harsh conditions did not deter the expert team but instead inspired their courage and determination to work hard.
The first to cooperate with Li Xiaoyun's team was Peyapeya Village in Morogoro Region. Li Xiaoyun creatively proposed the method of “parallel experience transfer”—without pesticides and fertilizers, without buying farming machinery, simply transplanting traditional Chinese farming experience to Africa, emphasizing intensive cultivation and reasonable high-density planting.
In 2012, the project was officially implemented. Agricultural experts went to the fields and provided training to local villagers on plant spacing, row spacing, point planting, and precision planting, teaching them farming techniques hand in hand, fundamentally changing the local extensive planting methods.
For local villagers, the Chinese technology is simple and easy to operate, easy to understand and learn, low-cost, and easy to promote.
The expert team also held corn yield competitions locally, and villagers with the best yields would receive a bicycle or a Mobile phone.
Evan Makau is a village head who was one of the first to join the project. As a result, his farmland achieved a bumper harvest, which served as a demonstration to other villagers. He proudly said, “The Chinese project has brought us tangible benefits.”
In addition to face-to-face communication in the fields, the Chinese expert team also provided Mobiles and installed WeChat for project staff and established a WeChat work group. This way, even when the experts returned to China, local villagers could contact them anytime, anywhere. Now, Chinese experts often interact with local villagers through WeChat groups, analyzing corn growth and solving difficult problems.
Li Xiaoyun took out his Mobile phone and showed us pictures of corn sent by local farmers. When he saw a video of farmland being flooded, he frowned with distress, “The sudden flood submerged the cornfields; this is our treasure!”
From one village, one household to widespread adoption
“In 2012, there was only one demonstration household in the village, the village technician. The following year, his yield increased by 3 times, so everyone started to learn from him,” Li Xiaoyun recalled the project's development. “From one household to one village to now more than 10 villages, nearly 1,500 farmers are using our technology.”
Technology promotion was not smooth sailing. Initially, many villagers found the method of planting with measured spacing too troublesome, far less convenient than randomly scattering seeds.
Rehanna, a farmer from Peyapeya Village, has received several technical trainings after being selected as a demonstration household in 2013. She tried to teach her relatives to use Chinese technology, but her relatives didn't believe her. In 2015, Rehanna's family had a bumper corn harvest, and she gave 3 bags of corn to two relatives, who were amazed and started to learn Chinese technology.
During an inspection in 2017, Li Xiaoyun discovered that Chinese technology had been widely adopted in many villages in Morogoro Region. Whether demonstration households or non-demonstration households, villagers had already mastered Chinese planting techniques, and learning Chinese technology had become a local “fashion.”
In 2015, Ahsa Ussen, a farmer from Peyapeya Village, worked on the land of a demonstration household, who taught her to use a rope to plant corn in rows. At harvest time, she helped harvest corn and found that the yield was much better than her own, so she also borrowed a rope and planted her land using the same method as the demonstration household.
Ahsa Ussen said that she had been observing the project and had seen firsthand that Chinese technology was indeed effective. After learning to use Chinese technology, in 2016, she harvested 12 bags of corn and sold 3. The following year, she happily hired a tractor to plow her land and set higher goals for herself.
From barely enough to eat to surplus grain per household
Evance Gambishi is a senior agricultural official at the Morogoro Regional Agricultural Office in Tanzania. He has witnessed the increased corn yields and improved lives of villagers in Morogoro Region. He said emotionally, “Thanks to the selfless dedication of the Chinese experts, Morogoro Region has seen a bumper corn harvest from initially two villages to now more than 10 villages.”
In the past, famine was very common in Wasimba Village. In years of poor harvests, most households could only eat two meals a day. However, since adopting Chinese agricultural technology, villagers can now eat three meals a day all year round. In the past, most families could only grow enough crops to barely survive, but now most households have enough food to eat and surplus crops to sell.
Starting in 2018, the project Entered a new phase—launching a demonstration project in Morogoro Region to achieve increased corn yields for 1,000 households on 10,000 acres in 10 counties, namely the “1,000 Households, 10,000 Acres Corn Yield Increase Demonstration Project”.
“This is just the beginning of China-Africa cooperation.” Wang Ke, the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, said that China will continue to promote Tanzania's economic growth. Evans Gambisi welcomed this, saying: “In the future, Tanzania will learn more about Chinese technology to promote the commercialization of corn production. Chinese aid will continue to play an important role in Tanzania's journey to becoming a middle-income country.”
Sun Qixin, president of China Agricultural University, said that China has made great progress in agriculture over the past 40 years, while African countries urgently need to improve agricultural productivity. Therefore, China Agricultural University has established a demonstration project to benefit African people.
RELATED INFORMATION
2024/09/18
2024/06/08
2023/10/13
Follow us
Fuzhou Yong Run Irrigation Equipment Co.,Ltd
Address: Hongkuan Industrial Village, Fuqing City
Mobile:+86-15959188079 (Ms. CHAN Mei-fung)
Landline:+86-591-22212272
Fax: +86-591-86392276