A delegation from Uganda visited several agricultural firms in Sichuan Province in southwest China recently, seeing huge potential for further cooperation between the two countries, especially in farming.
Chinese private companies had a successful time selling products overseas, particularly in Africa, with trade between them seeing a significant increase of 12.8 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
Thanks to the collaborative efforts under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Ugandan companies now have more opportunities to exchange agricultural technology and products with top-notch private enterprises in China, opening the door for further cooperation between the two sides.
Among the visiting delegation in Sichuan was Peter Muyimbo, an officer at the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries and also an acting project coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)'s Uganda-China South-South Project.
As the group visited various agricultural facilities in Ya'an City, he highlighted the impressive advancements in China's agricultural technology and production methods, and expressed enthusiasm for the potential export of these technologies to benefit agricultural practices back in Uganda.
"We have visited quite a number of stations that include this fish farm. We have also visited a chili production factory, and it is really impressive how to provide increased production and productivity. For example, this fishery establishment for cold water fish is a very good innovation. We can export this technology, this knowledge, these skills of agriculture production to Uganda through the framework of the FAO," said Muyimbo.
Meanwhile, the FAO is facilitating a partnership under the South-South Cooperation Program, according to Charles Owach, an assistant FAO representative who was also on the visit.
Owach pointed out that such collaboration is important for advancing poverty reduction in Uganda as the project can show the difference in adopting different advanced agricultural technologies to improve crop yields.
"Corporation in terms of learning strategies for poverty reduction. This collaboration is quite special under the South-South Cooperation Program. For example, the hybrid can yield up to 10 metric tons per hectare. When you compare it to the varieties that we have in Uganda, at the moment, the super variety which yields between three to four metric tons per hectare. You can see that the yield here is about double or 2.5 times," he said.
By leveraging expertise and best practices from partner countries, such as the hybrid crop variety in Sichuan, participating nations benefit from enhanced agricultural productivity and increased resilience to relevant challenges, according to Owach.
Cooperation with China promotes agricultural productivity in Uganda: Ugandan delegation
