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Many Zimbabweans place high hope on the Demonstration Center of China Agricultural Technology being built in Harare, which they hail as an important cog in the country’s agricultural development to regain its status of “bread basket” in Africa.

Top scientist Isheunesu Mupepereki has urged the new agricultural technology demonstration center being built in Zimbabwe with the assistance of the Chinese government to focus on farmer development and establishing synergies with other centers of higher learning.

The Demonstration Center of China Agricultural Technology in Zimbabwe, which has been under construction at Gwebi Agricultural College just outside Harare since late 2009, is expected to contribute to increasing agricultural yields and alleviating hunger through science and technology transfer, personnel training and cooperation in agriculture.

Mupepereki, who is the chairman of the Zimbabwe Soya Bean Taskforce and a professor and lecturer in soil science at the University of Zimbabwe, told Xinhua that he saw the center as an important cog in the development of agriculture in the country.

“It should work closely with universities, colleges and research institutes to promote agricultural technology and ensure that farmers are better equipped for their jobs. It should also target farmer leaders and agricultural extension officers who will further impart knowledge to other farmers.”

The taskforce was established to promote the growing of soya beans in the country after it was decided that the crop played an important role both as a cash crop and as food.

Mupepereki said the center should provide a total package, starting with growing, processing, beneficiation and right up to marketing. Processing of crops such as soya beans would also result in by-products which could be used as stock-feed.

A marketing executive with a top cotton company said the center should also develop high-yielding crops which meet the specific needs of customers.

The center is being built under the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which seeks to promote cooperation between China and Africa on a win-win basis.

FOCAC, which was launched in 2000, is a mechanism for collective dialogue and cooperation jointly established by the two partners to cope with new challenges and facilitate common development through win-win cooperation.

Under the program, China pledged to build demonstration centers in Africa to boost agricultural production and food security.

Speaking specifically on cotton production, the marketing executive who cannot be named for professional reasons said the approach to cotton production would be first to introduce genetically modified (GMO) varieties for yields development and improvement purposes.

However, Zimbabwe has over the years frowned upon GMOs, although debate on the issue continues.

“The key issue to cotton production development is to tackle the issue of yield, given the large tracts of land under cotton every season, the average yield per hectare is no more than 600 kg under rain-grown, yet there is potential to achieve over 1 000 kg per hectare.

“Notwithstanding the scarce financial resources, the issue of inputs accessibility by growers is very critical in that it is the backbone to achieving viable yields,” he said.

He added that the marketers’ interest was more on the fiber properties, and they must, therefore, work hand in hand with the new center to ensure that fiber properties were in line with the market feedback from periodic market surveys.

He also urged the demonstration center to work with cotton research institutes and develop seed varieties that give the desired fiber properties and rain-grown cotton yields of around 1, 800 to 2,000 kg/ha.

“But should irrigation be resuscitated, maybe yields of up to 3, 000 kg should be achieved resulting in increased total production without necessarily increasing hectarage. Having introduced the higher yield varieties, you now need growers’ full participation in the project, so that they have first hand practical experience, ” he said.

The growers can be invited in groups at specific dates on and off the season. The success of the project must also be backed by timeous availability or distribution of inputs to growers,” he told Xinhua.

The country’s largest farmer organization in terms of membership, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU), has also urged the government to allow the production of bio-tech cotton in order to cut down on production costs and maximize on yields.

“South Africa is producing it (bio-tech cotton) and we don’t know why our government continues to ban the growing of this type of cotton in the country,” ZFU executive director Paul Zakariya said.

“We know our government does not allow the growing of genetically modified crops in the country for health reasons but we see nothing wrong with bio-tech cotton because it’s not a food crop,” the ZFU chief added.

He also urged the Chinese to be involved in the cotton industry starting with production right up to marketing.

“Right now the Chinese are only coming to buy our cotton but we are saying this is not a good thing. We want them to invest money in the production of cotton so that we boost this industry. The Chinese have to become active players,” Zakariya said.

At the end of the FOCAC heads of state and government summit in Beijing in November 2006, Chinese President Hu Jintao appealed to the world not to ignore Africa’s voice and participation as an international partner.

His call reflected more than 50 years of China-Africa relations that continue to grow with China investing more in agriculture and other sectors on the continent while African countries exploring partnerships to enhance their economic growth.

Under FOCAC, China and Africa recognize the importance of agriculture in their economies. Both believe that enhanced agricultural cooperation played a positive role in eliminating poverty, promoting development and ensuring food security.

The two parties thus agreed to intensify their exchanges and cooperation in farming, animal husbandry, irrigation, fishery, agricultural machinery, processing of agricultural produce, food safety and epidemic control, and actively explore new forms of agricultural cooperation.

To ensure that this cooperation was successful, China has agreed to send 100 senior experts on agricultural technologies to Africa and set up 10 agriculture technology demonstration centers. These figures have since been revised upwards.

Farmer Toendepi Mugari also urged the center to invite farmers for field trips and short courses dealing with specific crops.

“The government should also ensure that the center takes agricultural extension officers for retraining so that they can impart the new knowledge to the farmers they interact with during the course of their duties,” he said.