The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Main flagship project
At the conference, both the Ugandan and Chinese government officials took turns to praise the US$220 million China-Uganda Agricultural Cooperation Industrial Park in Luwero District, calling it one of the most successful projects under the programme.
The park has three centres including; an agricultural production technology incubation centre, an agricultural products processing and trade centre and an agricultural industry cooperation centre. When it is fully completed, it is expected to provide up to 100,000 jobs.
Pius Wakabi Kasajja, the Permanent Secretary in Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries said the industrial parks that are sprouting up across the country have led to improved processing of the farm produce which in turn has benefitted local farmers.
At the conference, panel discussions dwelt on results, innovations and lessons learned over the past decade as well as the future of the programme.
Dr. Mohammed Bello Umar, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Nigeria praised the programme for helping Nigeria to achieve self-sufficiency in rice and cassava production.
“Most of the technologies that were brought by the Chinese experts have been replicated and these are now being exported to the neighbouring countries,” Bello said. Bello noted that it is important for African countries to cooperate with China because they have experienced and got right what many countries on the continent are grappling with at the moment.
Dr. Fadel Ndiame, a special advisor at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa noted that the ever-growing middle class on the continent that is increasingly looking for nutritious and quality food means that farming will have to be transformed from the “sedentary struggle for survival” to a science-based and market-driven venture.
Ndiame said small scale farmers need to be part of the ever-growing lucrative agricultural value chain but they need help from research institutions and SMEs that are involved in the sector.
Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries attributed the recent growth of the agricultural sector over the last few years to the FAO-China south-south cooperation programme. The food crops sub-sector, Ssempijja said, has particularly grown at 5.3% and 4% for the years 2017/18 and 2018/19 thanks to the cooperation. This, the minister said, is significant improvement from the performance of 1.3% and 1.4% between 2015 and 2017.
“Farmers have in the past been getting 25 bags of rice from one hectare but, with the improved variety, a farmer is likely to get between 100-110 bags from the same effort and area,” he said.
He said Uganda has since 2011 been receiving support from China to implement strategies to solve some of the country’s agricultural constraints, including low levels of production, productivity and profitability in priority crop commodities, livestock and fisheries.
Going forward, Ssempijja said the South-South Cooperation programme has been and is expected to continue being the main flagship project providing the platform for agricultural technology, skills and knowledge transfer from China to Uganda.
On Nov. 26, Uganda and China signed a US$ 2.4 million agreement to implement the third phase of the FAO-China South-South cooperation framework.
The third phase which will be implemented over the next three years has been designed to commercialize agricultural productivity with the target of increasing exports to the Chinese market according to Uganda’s agriculture minister.
Ssempijja said Ugandan farmers will be guided by Chinese agribusiness experts on how best to improve productivity on the farms.
“We strongly believe that by working together with our Chinese friends through joint venture businesses, investment arrangements and win-win cooperation, majority of African countries will quickly eradicate poverty,” Ssempijja said.
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