On March 25, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech entitled "Always Be a Reliable Friend and Sincere Partner" at the Nyerere International Convention Center in Tanzania, putting forward the policy concepts of "truth", "truth", "pro" and "sincerity" towards Africa. In the past 10 years, China-Africa cooperation has been continuously deepened, expanded, improved and upgraded. The story of China-Africa friendship that China has helped African friends achieve common development has also continued.
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has vast land suitable for arable land and good natural conditions, but due to the backward level of agricultural development, Nigeria still has a large food shortage every year. A group of Chinese agricultural technologists took root in the local area, cultivated crops, disseminated technology, and trained personnel, vividly interpreting the concept of "truthfulness, truthfulness, affinity and sincerity". With the completion of the Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center assisted by China to Nigeria, more crop varieties and technical equipment are expected to be introduced into the local area and promoted on a larger scale, continuing to contribute to Nigeria's food security and agricultural modernization transformation.
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He Beiping: This is an agricultural park on the northwestern outskirts of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, where the agricultural technology demonstration center built by China was completed and handed over to the Nigerian government in December last year.
On the day of the reporter's interview, when the new season of rice in the demonstration center entered the transplanting season, in the demonstration field of more than 40 acres, more than 10 local farmers led by Chinese technical expert Wang Xuemin carried out rice transplanting and weed removal work, and learned a lot of agricultural planting knowledge and technology.
Staff of Nigerian Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre Isaac: My master taught me various planting techniques and I learned a lot. I plan to open my own farm when I have my own money and develop my country with Chinese technology.
In 2003, Wang Xuemin came to Nigeria as a technician sent by the China-Nepal South-South Cooperation Agricultural Project to promote the use of basic Chinese agricultural tools, such as threshing machines and threshers, to local farmers.
In 2006, Wang Xuemin moved to Kebi State in northwestern Nigeria to create a large rice-growing farm with a group of agricultural technicians. Wang Xuemin found that an important reason for limiting local rice production is the low quality of local seeds, and since 2008, Wang Xuemin and his colleagues have started seed research and development experiments.
Wang Xuemin, rice planting expert at the Nigerian Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center: Finally, in 2017, my new variety was successfully approved and widely promoted, and its yield was about 30% higher than that of the local main variety, which was loved by farmers. Our seeds are booked by nearby farmers for seed use before they are ripe.
At present, this variety has been promoted and planted locally for more than five years, adding more than 2 million tons of rice production to Nigeria, benefiting at least 200,000 farmers. Chinese agricultural technology experts have also introduced Chinese spreading technology to the local area, which has greatly improved the efficiency of seeding, and trained more than 800 people, who have also established a deep relationship with local people in their long-term interactions.
Wang Xuemin, rice planting expert at the Nigerian Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center: The promotion of our technology has brought tangible benefits to the people, they are very happy and very kind to us, and when I go there, they all call me Lao Wang. Once I came back from a business trip and the car slipped into a roadside ditch, and without saying a word, they carried my car out of the car together.
Now, the agricultural technology demonstration center assisted by China in Nigeria has been completed. The Demonstration Centre includes supporting facilities such as the Technical Training Centre and the Agricultural Technology Research and Service Centre, and regular annual training sessions are planned to help Nigerian agricultural officials, technicians and ordinary farmers upgrade their agricultural skills and promote the modernization of Nigeria's agriculture by attracting investment and promoting agricultural projects suitable for local development.
Wang Yun, head of the Chinese operation and management enterprise of the Nigerian Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center: At present, it is mainly through attracting investment and introducing agricultural technology to find agricultural projects in Nigeria that are suitable for the country's development, and through agricultural projects to carry out demonstration, training and extension.
Nigerian officials from the agricultural sector expressed their belief that under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the policy concept of "truth", "reality", "pro" and "sincerity" on Africa, China-Africa agricultural cooperation will continue to move forward and bear new fruits.
Abubakar, Director-General, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Nigeria: Since the China-Nepal South-South Cooperation agricultural project, there has been a lot of cooperation between the agricultural sectors of the two countries, and Chinese experts have come to our farmers to teach them modern agricultural techniques, which has achieved great success. We have benefited tremendously, especially the establishment of the Demonstration Center, which is China's real support for us, for which we are very grateful.