An Incubator of Talent

A study program launched under China-Africa agricultural cooperation 
helps Africa bolster food security

By Li Xiaoyu

10 August 2022 

Zigani Saturnin (left) checks crop growth in an experimental field in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, on July 23, 2020

Saturnin Zigani, 36, grew up in a small village in Burkina Faso and has seen the hardships people face in obtaining sufficient food. “Despite cultivating enormous areas of land, farmers, including my parents, struggle to attain a good output,” he lamented. He believes that increasing grain yield per unit of land area rather than expansion of agricultural land is the most effective approach to move agriculture toward sustainable intensification in Africa.

That’s the conclusion based on his eight years of experience as an extension worker in the Ministry of Agriculture and Hydro-Agricultural Development and in non-governmental organizations in his country.

So he was delighted when he was given the opportunity to study in China’s capital Beijing on a Chinese government scholarship. “China’s success in reducing poverty and its ability to feed a population of 1.4 billion with only 9 percent of the world’s arable land will serve as a great inspiration to Burkina Faso,” he told ChinAfrica.

A unique experience

Two African students and a local farmer show the grapes they harvested in an experimental field in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, on July 23, 2020

In September 2019, the young Burkinabe enrolled in a master’s program called Sino-African Science and Technology Backyard (STB) of the National Academy of Agricultural Green Development at China Agricultural University (CAU). He was one of the 48 students from 10 African countries who joined the program. The majority of them were recommended by program partners such as the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Chinese companies in Africa.

“This option enables us to recruit students who have a special need to learn about Chinese agricultural skills and practices, as well as a particular interest in the country’s rural development,” Jiao Xiaoqiang, an associate professor at the CAU and also a coordinator with the STB program, told ChinAfrica.

Zigani’s research is focused on the optimal use of nitrogen and production gains in millet and legume farming. “Millet is Burkina Faso’s second-most significant crop. It has a high nutritious value compared to other cereals,” he said. It requires less fertilizer and is more resilient to challenging soil and environmental conditions. As a result, he wished to contribute to the improvement of millet farming in West Africa by applying good practices and technology learned from China.

After spending the first semester studying theoretical courses taught entirely in English, he was encouraged to explore rural life in a village in Quzhou County, Hebei Province. In his 10-mu (0.67 hectare) experimental field at the university’s research base in Quzhou, he worked closely with farmers, teachers, and fellow researchers on everything from soil preparation and fertilization to planting and weeding. From this experience, he obtained an impressive millet yield of 6 tons per hectare, compared to less than 1 ton per hectare in Burkina Faso. He attributed this yield difference to variety improvement, good agricultural practices, and high soil fertility through the use of fertilizer.

In addition to his academic study, he had the opportunity to learn more about Chinese society and culture, particularly in rural regions. Despite the language barriers, he built close relationships with the farmers of Quzhou. “They were always friendly and willing to assist us. We still keep in touch via social media platform WeChat. Some of them send us images and videos of their agricultural activities,” he said.

A successful model

The STB model, first introduced by the CAU in Quzhou in 2009, allows students to apply their academic knowledge to maximize crop yields along with farmers playing an active role in identifying agricultural difficulties and finding and co-developing their own solutions. Over the past few years, the program has been a huge success: more than 400 STBs have been implemented in villages across the country; a total of 200 tutorials and manuals have been developed; and 3,300 training sessions have been conducted with some 160,000 farmers.

Professor Jiao said the success of the STB program has attracted widespread interest and the university has received support from organizations such as the FAO, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to facilitate the extension of STBs to Africa. Talent training plays a key role in its success. Thus, the STB program was launched in 2019 to provide African students with an opportunity to learn about this approach during their first year of study in China before encouraging them to apply their knowledge and skills in their home countries the following year.

Because of COVID-19, most students like Zigani had to stay in China throughout the course of their studies. Nigerian student Ahmad Abdullahi Tinau is a rare exception. After a year of study in China, he returned to Nigeria in 2020 despite the travel restrictions due to the pandemic. With the support of CGCOC Group, a large Chinese construction company and one of the program’s partners, he conducted field research with smallholder farmers at the group’s base in Nigeria to identify local production issues. Simultaneously, he participated in a technical study on regenerative rice to improve grain production. His skills were highly recognized by the group.

Zigani is confident in the success of the STB approach, having seen its positive impact in rural China, and believes that its application in Africa would help the continent attain food self-sufficiency. The young man is determined to put his Chinese experience to good use and to establish a similar research program when he returns to his country after graduating this year.

“In addition, I would like to serve as a bridge between Chinese colleges and businesses and those in Burkina Faso. This would make it easier to train fresh talent in China to solve our country’s growth difficulties,” he concluded.

This article was first published in ChinAfrica magazine