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Chinese agricultural technology demonstration centers, or ATDC, have promoted the transfer of advanced agricultural technologies from China to African countries, and could help the continent recover from food insecurity, said South African experts.

"ATDC could play a bigger role in ensuring food security in the region as the countries recover from COVID-19," said Elias Dafi, an econometrician who is a lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology, adding that more research is needed to better understand the role of such demonstration centers in Africa.

Dafi made the remarks during a webinar on Thursday about Chinese investments in Africa's agricultural sector. The webinar was hosted by the University of the Western Cape's Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.

Available in 23 countries in Africa, ATDCs have resulted in the transfer of technology and skills from China to Africa. Dafi said ATDCs are needed to resuscitate the agricultural sector in the continent.

The concept of ATDCs was introduced during the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006 to capacitate small-scale farmers in Africa to improve their produce.

Since then, such demonstration centers have been built in countries including South Africa, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

COVID-19 curbs in many African countries have reduced farming activities and increased food insecurity. Nearly 98 million people in Africa faced severe food insecurity in 2020, according to a World Food Programme report released in May.

Decades of benefits

George T. Mudimu, a researcher from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, said ATDCs have been successfully implemented in Zambia since 2011. With shrinking Western funding, ATDCs have filled that void.

More than 200 small-scale farmers in Zambia have been trained at ATDCs every year. The farmers usually spend between five and 10 days learning integrated farming, weed management and mushroom farming.

Nkumbu Nalwimba, an independent researcher in Zambia, pointed out that although ATDCs in Zambia have been successfully implemented in the country and helped in the transfer of agricultural techniques and skills, there is a need for it to be further improved.

Edmore Mwandiringana, a Zimbabwean national who is a PhD candidate at the China Agricultural University in Beijing, said more than 3,000 farmers in Zimbabwe have been trained in ATDCs.

Agriculture is a major part of China-Africa cooperation over the past decades, with various projects carried out in Africa and Chinese experts sent to the continent on a regular basis to help improve the sector.

At the eighth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in the Senegalese capital Dakar in November, China announced it will intensify cooperation to help Africa's agricultural development and poverty eradication efforts, including sending 500 agricultural experts to the continent over the next three years.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.