China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development

Value chain development may be one of the most effective approaches to enhance smallholder farmers' income and livelihoods to achieve

Zero Hunger through the different SDG 2 targets. The WFP China COE has been dedicated to the China-Africa Rice Value Chain cooperation, having held two sessions of Rice Value Chain Seminar in 2021 and 2022. The series seminar was co-organised by the WFP China COE, THE United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (The Gates Foundation), CERFAM and other key Chinese partners with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the People's Republic of China (MARA).

Such events provide a useful platform for different stakeholders to exchange knowledge, technologies and insights on solutions and pathways to enhance rice value chain development for smallholders. In association, two country initiatives, funded by The Gates Foundation, were kicked off in early November 2022 upon signing of the Investment Document between WFP and The Gates Foundation. This is a joint effort by the WFP China COE and CERFAM, and aims to support the rice value chain in Africa through capacity strengthening at policy, technical and grassroot levels in production, processing, quality control and storage by creating demonstration sites for local communities.

Post-harvest Loss Management Initiative in Cote d'Ivoire

Many African countries face small but hard-to-address challenges. For example, in Cote d'Ivoire, the rice sector is facing challenges like low-level application of technical itineraries, poor mechanization, and thus, up to 40 percent of production is wasted due to poor processing and storage capacity. To address these challenges, the WFP China COE launched the China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development Initiative in March 2021, with stakeholders from both China and Cote d'Ivoire. Responding to regional and local development demands and priorities, a demonstration site was established in the local community in northern Cote d'Ivoire and three types of equipment were purchased.

Meanwhile, Chinese experts from Henan University of Technology were invited to give lectures on rice processing, storage, and post-harvest loss management. A total of 614 local smallholders and their households joined this project and benefited from the technology transfer from the field demonstration and technical trainings. Besides, a China-Africa Rice Value Chain Development Synergy was formed to build a regular exchange mechanism between researchers and stakeholders in China and Africa and enhance the partnership in the rice value chain.

Technical Cooperation in Africa 

Food security and nutrition are also important areas where WFP China supports collaboration among developing countries. With support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the People's Republic of China, in 2019, WFP launched a South-South and Triangular Cooperation Country Pilot Initiative. Pilot projects are now being carried out in selected African countries, such as Kenya, Republic of Congo, and Ghana. In Kenya, the project is empowering smallholders in dry areas to enhance their capacity in post-harvest management. Simple and cost-effective techniques like using moisture meters, can help reduce post-harvest losses for grains, pulses, and fresh foods.

In the Republic of Congo, WFP is transferring China's knowledge to hundreds of smallholders and linking their hand-made cassava flour with the School Feeding Programme to diversify healthy and nutritious diets. In Ghana, series of capacity strengthening webinars are held on E-commerce for grain reserve and marketing, which helps better understanding the specific needs of the different sectors in Ghana and explore how Chinese academic and corporate partners can support the Ghana Smallholder Farmers E-Commerce Access (SFEA) project, to support smallholders' grain storage and improve their resilience to market risk and access the market with innovative measures.

Knowledge management to support Africa

Knowledge is productivity, which also holds true for agricultural transformation. Taking advantage of the increasingly important role that digital technology is playing in knowledge sharing, the WFP-China South-South Cooperation Knowledge Sharing Platform was launched on 15 April 2022. The Platform serves as a knowledge hub providing an enabling environment for partners to post demands, share solutions and connect with each other for smallholder value chain development, post-harvest loss management and food systems, disaster risk reduction and climate change resilience as well as innovative poverty alleviation initiative.

The Cloud School is an expanded function on this Platform, a learning space which offers an inclusive and tailored learning programme for learners at all levels in multi-lingual courses. French courses are specially designed to target an African audience. Video courses on cassava and banana are also produced to meet the specific learning demands. As a digitalised knowledge tool, the South-South Knowledge Sharing Platform aims to respond to the needs of developing countries and facilitated two-way exchange for knowledge sharing and remote learning on food security, nutrition improvement, poverty reduction and rural transformation.

Source: 

The 11th CERFAM's Bulletin, The Role of South-South Cooperation and the Sharing of Good Practices in Achieving Zero Hunger in Africa by WFP China COE