FAO hails new China initiatives to support Africa’s food security

NAIROBI, Sept. 4 — A United Nations official on Monday hailed the
2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) for
new initiatives aimed at supporting food security in Africa.

Gabriel Rugalema, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Representative in Kenya, said that new initiatives rolled out on food
security and agricultural growth by China will help African countries
achieve their industrialization goals on schedule. China has pledged at
the event that it will support Africa in achieving general food security by
2030, work with Africa to formulate and implement a program of action to
promote China-Africa cooperation on agricultural modernization. During an
interview with Xinhua in Nairobi on Monday, Rugalema said apart from food
availability, the new initiatives will also help transform agriculture to
become an employer, hence changing the lives of people.

Rugalema noted that in addition to putting in place infrastructural
development in road and rail network, food security remains a key factor
towards improving livelihoods of African communities. He said that the
uplift in infrastructure done by Chinese companies is a major enabler for
agricultural development through opening new markets for farm produce.
“Through China’s support in developing roads and railway lines, unreachable
parts of the continent where initially people took two days to reach have
become reachable within 10 hours of travelling,” said Rugalema. He noted
that just like China, Africa will stand to achieve its industrialization
goal after attaining food security. “China’s cooperation with Africa has
offered farmers an opportunity for selling their crops and livestock in
time hence making profit,” said Rugalema. He noted that through FOCAC
initiatives, African countries are due to see markets for their produce
expand.

Rugalema called on the Chinese part to bring agricultural technologies that
the continent needs to help increase its productivity. He observed that
Africa requires affordable technologies such as processing plants and maize
dryers to help manage food wastage. “We require new drought-tolerant rice
varieties that are being grown in China to help improve food security in
the continent,” Rugalema told Xinhua. The UN official challenged African
countries to embark on greening the environment by embarking on planting of
additional trees and grasses to improve food security in arid and semi arid
areas, and called on China to share its experience in forestation. – XINHUA