As one of the outcomes of the China-Africa-UNESCO Cooperation Dialogue on Education and Cultural Heritage Conservation held in Beijing, the Africa Center for Science and Technology Courtyard will be established, jointly organized by China Agricultural University and Malawi University of Science and Technology, which is the hub of the Science and Technology Academy in Africa, with Malawi as the center and radiating Tanzania and Kenya.
The Science and Technology Academy is an innovative model that dispatches graduate students majoring in agriculture to the front line of agricultural production for a long time, and promotes the latest achievements of agricultural laboratories to the field. In China, in the past 15 years, more than 1,800 science and technology academies have been established in 157 postgraduate training institutions to serve rural areas. How does this model benefit Africa?
In Xizhangtou Village, Quzhou County, Handan City, Hebei Province, a plant protection drone is working in a field to spread pesticides and prevent pests and diseases, and the pilot is a student from Africa.
Malawi graduate student of the China-Africa Science and Technology School of China Agricultural University: It's so interesting, the use of drone technology to spray pesticides is very advanced, and I have seen the efficiency. There are almost 300 acres of land, and the medicine will be sprinkled in a few hours, and if the medicine is applied manually, it will take many people many days to finish.
Ma Ma told us that as graduate students of the China-Africa Science and Technology Academy, in the first year of field classes, they will be paired with local agricultural cooperatives and large planters, participate in the whole process from planting to management, and learn about soil testing formulas, the use of organic fertilizers, and scientific adjustment of plant spacing. The corn in the field, which is growing well, is planted by him in cooperation with five local farmers.
Malawi graduate student of the China-Africa Science and Technology School of China Agricultural University: We are about to usher in a bumper corn harvest. I really learned a lot from China, Malawi is mainly based on agriculture, more than 80% of the population is agricultural. As long as agriculture develops, the country will develop.
Augustine, also from Malawi, returned to Malawi with his classmates when he was in his second year of graduate school last year and used the model of the China Science and Technology Academy to help local smallholder farmers, increasing corn production several times.
Augustine, a Malawian graduate student at the China-Africa Science and Technology School of China Agricultural University: Selecting good seeds, measuring the soil to see what nutrients are in it, and then deciding how much fertilizer to apply to make the plants grow well, so that we have increased the yield of corn per hectare from 2,100 kilograms to 8,000 kilograms, which is a huge progress, and the farmers are happy and I am happy because I helped them increase their yields.
However, this was not easy, and when Augustine said he first returned to Malawi, local farmers did not trust him, a young student, to help them solve their agricultural problems.
Augustine, a third-year Malawian student at the China-Africa Science and Technology Academy of China Agricultural University: Our professor has already told us that you will definitely not want to listen to you when you go to the farmer's field for the first time, so we told them when we first went there that we are here to help them work in the fields. So they went to the field, and we went to the field, and we studied agriculture together. Later, we gained the trust of farmers. We started working with 30 farmers, and now more farmers are joining the Science and Technology Courtyard. When we went back to China this year, they were very sad, and when I told them there were still students to go, they were happy.
Augustine said that now he has become a well-known "little expert" in his hometown, and this year he returned to China to study in his third year of graduate school, and there are also African farmers who ask him questions through phone calls and text messages. He hopes to graduate as soon as possible and bring home technologies such as water and fertilizer integration, intercropping and mechanization to help the development of agriculture in his hometown.
Augustine, a Malawian graduate student at the China-Africa Science and Technology Academy of China Agricultural University: This is my responsibility and an opportunity for young people to help African smallholder farmers increase their income. In fact, I have already bought a piece of land, and I plan to use what I have learned to farm when I return to China, and my field will be like a hub to help the surrounding farmers learn some new sustainable agricultural technologies for free. The skills and experience that Malawi lacked, we learned from the China Science and Technology Academy.
Mada, a Malawian graduate student from the China-Africa Science and Technology School of China Agricultural University: In the future, I also hope to return to China to develop large farms, plant agriculture efficiently, and ensure national food security. The Malawi government is encouraging the development of large farms, which is a huge opportunity for me. China is a good example for Africa, and I am very grateful to be here.
(CCTV reporter Zhou Peipei, Yao Jieyang, Hebei station)
Source: CCTV news client