Agricultural And Forest Resources In Five Southern African Countries And The Potential Of Sino-african Cooperation

The Center for China-Africa Agriculture and Forestry Research (CAFOR) was officially foundedon December16th,2012by Zhejiang A&F University and INBAR. As a part of a country-basedreport of CAFOR on Sino-African agricultural cooperation funded by Ministry of Agriculture, thisthesis focuses on five southern African countries including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesothoand Swaziland. In this thesis, a relatively systematic outline of current agricultural and forestresources and existing problems in the resource application in five countries of Southern Africa and acomparison between China and the five countries in terms of agriculture and forestry were made,based on which the reason for development of agriculture and forestry in China was analyzed andadvices on agricultural and forestry cooperation between China and Southern Africa were suggested.It is hoped that this paper can provide some information for development of and research on theSino-African agricultural and forestry cooperation. The specific conclusions are as follows:In agriculture, influenced by the agricultural development during the colonial period,agriculture-associated policies of African countries are still with the nature of colonial economy. Theytend to develop only a few export-oriented crops and the investment in domestic agriculture is small,which cannot meet the demand for consumption. The food there overly depends on import. Therefore,changes in external conditions, such as the changes in international market, can exert stronginfluences on African countries. African countries should pay more attention to agriculturaldevelopment and take as a top priority to develop agriculture improving their grain yield, realizingfood self-supply and ensuring national food security. Moreover, they should carry out policiesemphasizing and benefiting agriculture and develop corresponding preferential policies to attractforeign investment. Meanwhile, great efforts should be made to introduce, develop and extendadvanced agricultural technologies and cultivate technicians. In addition, onsite activities should becarried out to strengthen the link with farmers, to solve problems farmers encounter in the production,and to guide and train farmers to apply new technologies to developing agricultural production. Third,fundamental farmland construction should be carried out, such as farmland preparation, improvementof saline-alkali land and application of organic fertilizers. Farmland irrigation should be improved andwater-saving irrigation should be extended. Effective prevention and control systems should be set upto improve resistance to natural hazards, diseases and pests and to reduce losses caused by naturaldisasters.In forestry, the development of Southern Africa is mainly based on tree felling and wood ismainly exported in the form of logs with little being processed. Therefore the economic structure isrelatively simplex. Without advanced technologies, equipment and approaches, the utilization rate ofwood development is low. Naturally, the wood consumption is very big, which results in a largeamount of waste in timber resources. The prominent problem lies in that the wood cutting volume isgreat while the wood processing industry is weak. Therefore, it is advised to further process the primary forest products, so as to increase the added value of the forest products. Moreover, somesuitable technologies should be applied and advanced manufacturing equipment should be introducedbased on reality of Africa. Market investigation should be carried out to develop new forest products,so as to improve the market competitiveness of the forest products of Africa and expand its marketshare. Meanwhile, great attention should be paid to cultivation of local forest technicians. Finally,great attention should be paid to conservation of ecological environment and forest resources in thedevelopment of forestry to promote the harmonious development between humans and nature andavoid the old way of “growth first followed by treatment and control”. Ecological forestry should bedeveloped. Based on the natural condition of Africa and advantages of our country in the research anddevelopment, it is advised in this paper that bamboo and other four fast growing species can beconsidered to plant in Southern Africa and to develop corresponding industries.In the development of agriculture and forestry in Southern Africa, China is endowed with thetechnologies needed by Southern Africa. Therefore, there is great potential for further exchanges andcooperation in agriculture and forestry between China and Africa based on the previous cooperation.It is hoped that this paper can provide some useful information for cooperation in the agriculture andforestry between both parties.