Africa Economy: China-aided center helps improve lives of Zambian farmers

Rosemary Zulu, a small-scale farmer in Zambia, says she has benefited a lot from training programs provided by a China-aided agricultural technology center.

She attended training programs on mushroom production and has since started a mushroom project at her farm.

Zulu from Chongwe district, east of Lusaka, the Zambian capital, is among hundreds of Zambian farmers who have benefited from the agricultural center.

"I have attended the training twice on how to grow mushroom and this has helped me a lot. I have since started a mushroom project which has helped me increase my income," she said in an interview with Xinhua.

In order to increase the production of mushroom, the farmer said she has since mobilized others who will be trained so that they too could join in the production of mushrooms.

The center was proposed by former Chinese President Hu Jintao in November 2006 during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum and construction work started in 2008 while full operation started in 2012.

It is one of the first 14 agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa being pioneered by Jilin Agricultural University and it is run in collaboration with the University of Zambia.

The demonstration center in Zambia has so far conducted 39 trainings in which 791 small-scale farmers, students and other Zambians have been trained.

"The market is there and my business has since grown but I can't satisfy the demand. What is hindering us is lack of machinery," says Zulu.

"I am ready to teach others so that we can increase our production and be able to supply big super markets. Right now, my production is still small," she said.

Professor Bao Heping, the director of the center, said the center's focus was to train the farmers so that they become self-reliant and be able to utilize their knowledge to improve their livelihoods.

"I think that the most important thing is that we are empowering these people with skills and they can use this knowledge they are getting to improve their lives. We believe that once we train them, they can be able to stand on their own and help other people," he said.

The director said the center was willing to help the farmers once they show commitment by starting a project after acquiring the knowledge.

"People who are trained must start a project before they are helped. There is no way you can just give people money anyhow without knowing how they are going to use it. They must demonstrate that they are able to start a project and we can come in and help them in some way," he said.

"We have already helped some of the people we have trained after seeing their commitment," he added.

Among the trainings provided include training in agricultural machinery, storage and processing of farm produce, soil management, techniques of mushroom cultivation, soya beans cultivation, vegetable production, fruit tree growing and livestock rearing.

The center has since established mushroom, maize, soya beans and vegetable demonstration bases in different parts of the country, with the furthest being in Luapula Province, 1,000 kilometers from Lusaka.

The center has also been conducting research on new crop varieties as well as providing extension services to the farming community in Zambia. Endit