Foreign Economic Cooperation Center

The FAO–China SSC Project in Uganda (Phases I and II) from 2012 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2017 are among the Programme’s longest and most successful collaborations. A total of 47 Chinese agricultural experts and technicians from China went to Uganda and worked with local farmers and experts. They carried out technology demonstrations and promotions in the fields of food production, apple growing industrialization, large-scale vegetable production, construction of farmland water conservancy facilities, and development of the aquaculture feed processing industry among other things, which strongly promoted Uganda's agricultural industrialization.

While providing guidance on production, the Chinese expert teams also extended the value chain through processing projects, broadened the market sales channels through the enterprises plus farmers approach, and improved the economic, social and ecological benefits of agriculture in an all-round way through guiding integrated rice and fish farming, circular agriculture and leisure agriculture.

At the end of the projects, Uganda's Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and the FAO Representative Office in Uganda issued Outstanding Contribution Awards to the Chinese expert teams. In November 2019, a tripartite agreement on the China-Uganda South-South Cooperation (Phase III) Project was signed by China, Uganda and the FAO. Through the projects' platform, the Chinese experts introduced a Chinese company to be responsible for the agricultural investment in Uganda, which effectively solved the local problems of outdated agricultural infrastructure, insufficient investment in agricultural materials, and poor market access.

The Chinese government, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Madagascar government signed a tripartite agreement in December 2018. To implement the agreement, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) of China sent nine agricultural experts to Madagascar in September 2019, as the South-South cooperation expert team. The Chinese experts have carried out technical assistance in the fields of hybrid rice production, animal husbandry and comprehensive agricultural management in the project sites of Mahitsy, Zhaka and Diego.

As a result, the local grain output increased from 2.8 to 10.28 metric tons per hectare, and the loss of rice after harvest was reduced from 14 percent to 4 percent. Introducing Chinese straw ammoniated feed production methods effectively improved the production and quality of local forage and alleviated the problem of small local ruminants. At the same time, the projects pay special attention to the employment of women and youth, which effectively improves the economic and social benefits of local agriculture. The local farmers and minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Madagascar, praised the results of the projects.