Food helper

China is increasing agricultural cooperation with Africa to help the continent strengthen its resilience to hunger and food insecurity

According to the report The Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, jointly released by the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN in 2019, the prevalence of undernourishment in Africa rose from 2017 to 2018. As of the end of 2018, one-fifth of the population-256 million people - remained hungry in Africa, among which 17 million are in North Africa and 239 million in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the report, the three major drivers of hunger and food insecurity are climate change, conflict and economic slowdowns and downturns.

With wide and direct impacts on African agriculture, climate change has become the most important factor exacerbating the food crisis on the continent. A report by the United Nations International Children's Fund says that more than 15 million people in Southern Africa, including over 8 million children, lost their lives because of the severe drought in 2015/16. The drought also caused severe food shortages in African countries including Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

From the second half of 2018 to the first half of 2019, more than 20 million people in East Africa suffered from severe food shortages caused by drought conditions. Since January this year, locusts have destroyed thousands of acres of crops in East Africa, meaning more than 20 million people are now facing food shortages. Countries affected include Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.

The climate crisis threatens to have serious impacts in Africa, where more frequent extreme weather events threaten people's health and safety. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the rising trend of undernourishment over the period from 2014 to 2018 in Africa is confirmed by the growing food insecurity. The prevalence of severe food insecurity rose from 18.1 percent in 2014 to 21.5 percent in 2018, with the highest figure in Southern Africa, where the prevalence is 30.6 percent. It means that nearly 280 million African people face severe food insecurity, with people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Africa particularly at risk.

According to data from the World Bank, disastrous floods will become more frequent in Central and West African countries which border the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, the Horn of Africa in East Africa and some Southern African countries including Zimbabwe and South Africa, increasing by 10 to 15 percent by 2030. By 2050, the occurrence rate of droughts in Central, Central-Eastern, Northern and Southern Africa will increase by 5 to 15 percent.

The United Nations 2030 Agenda and African Union's Agenda 2063 both include ending hunger and achieving food security in their sustainable development goals. China-Africa cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative aims to align with the goals set by the UN 2030 Agenda and AU's Agenda 2063.Agricultural cooperation should become a critical part of China-Africa cooperation in jointly coping with climate change. And agricultural development and food security should be an important goal of China-Africa cooperation.

China has achieved food self-sufficiency thanks to substantial progress in its agricultural sector following decades of arduous efforts, making the country capable of making contributions to Africa's agricultural development.

In particular, against the backdrop of climate change, remarkable progress in China's agricultural technologies has laid a solid foundation for strengthening China-Africa agricultural cooperation. China has a clear lead in agricultural machinery, new types of breeding technology and the scientific use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the meantime, the application of electronic computer technology, biotechnology, new machinery and information technology has facilitated growth of its agricultural productivity.

The 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation outlined a road map for China and Africa to jointly cope with climate change and bolster cooperation on food security, pushing bilateral ties in these two areas to a new level. As stated in the first provision on economic cooperation in the FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2019-21), "China supports Africa's agricultural modernization and will help Africa upgrade its industry and agricultural infrastructure, increase agricultural productivity and the value added of agro-products, improve Africa's ability to ensure food security, invest in testing and adaptation of machines to African conditions, establish African dealerships capable of after-sales support and service, support the development of township and village industries, promote inclusive growth and shared prosperity and support Africa in achieving general food security by 2030."

In follow-up actions, from 2018 to 2019, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs dispatched 113 agricultural experts to African countries to pass on 224 new technologies in such areas as crop planting, animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, aquatic products, hydraulic engineering, horticulture and silkworm breeding and mulberry growing, and trained about 21,700 local government officials, experts, teachers, students and farmers.

In addition, China is assisting Africa in developing sustainable agriculture, improving its food security risk management systems and establishing an emergency response mechanism. It is carrying out cooperation on agricultural scientific research and technological transfer to support African countries implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, including African Union-led food security projects and activities.

Helping Africa achieve agricultural modernization and food self-sufficiency can help offset the adverse impacts of climate change on Africa and reduce and promote the eradication of some negative factors that undermine the continent's political stability and economic growth. Considering the impacts of the novel coronavirus outbreak and long-term development of China-Africa relations, China-Africa cooperation on agriculture and food security will be of greater significance, playing a critical role in helping African countries achieve their poverty eradication and poverty alleviation goals, intensifying China-Africa Belt and Road cooperation and promoting the construction of a China-Africa community with a shared future.

The author is a researcher of the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 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.