South-South Cooperation trainings boost the capacity of six African countries on hybrid rice and foxtail millet

Two virtual capacity-building training courses on hybrid rice and hybrid foxtail millet were successfully organized by the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division (PST) from 7-28 March 2022, in collaboration with two Chinese specialized institutions. The trainings brought together about 40 participants from six African countries namely the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Namibia and Nigeria. 

The first capacity-building training course on hybrid rice was organized in collaboration with the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center (HHRRC) of China from 7 to 16 March 2022. The training aimed at enhancing the capacity of government officials, researchers and rice experts from the six African countries on cultivation methods, seed production, integrated disease control, processing, storage, and marketing, through a series of lectures by HHRRC experts. 

Rice is an important staple food crop for many countries in Sub-Sahara Africa. Despite its importance, the sector is constrained by lack of modern farming infrastructure and quality of inputs, such as improved and high-yield seed varieties. Enhancing the sector’s productivity sustainably is key to ensuring food security and nutrition and improving farmers’ livelihoods in many countries in Africa. FAO has been helping countries in this endeavour, drawing on China’s extensive experience in the framework of South-South and triangular cooperation.  

During the opening ceremony of the first training course, Mr. Ye Anping, Director of the South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division, noted that the trainings were a follow up to an earlier meeting held between FAO’s Director-General and the Minister of Agriculture of Gambia to discuss how FAO could support Gambia's priority sectors namely rice, millet and poultry. Mr Xia Jingyuan, Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP), who also attended the opening ceremony, remarked the importance of these capacity-building trainings and similar others focused on specific sectors for the implementation of FAO's One Country One Product (OCOP) initiative. 

At the opening, Mr. Hassan Jallow, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Gambia, also noted the importance of rice for the Gambian economy and the need for capacity support to the sector, and thanked FAO for organizing the training in collaboration with HHRRC.

The second training course on hybrid foxtail millet was organized in collaboration with the Zhangjiakou Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ZAAS) of China from 17 to 28 March 2022. As a state-owned agricultural research institute, ZAAS has been engaged in millet research since 1969, and has introduced various high yield millet varieties to the market during the past few decades. ZAAS experts provided a series of lectures to the participants on key topics, such as production, processing, marketing and consumption of hybrid foxtail millet. The opening session was attended by Mr. Guo Xinyao, Vice Mayor of the city of Zhangjiakou, and Mr Musa Humma, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Gambia. The latter highlighted the importance of millet for food security and nutrition in the Gambia and underscored the importance of the capacity building training on hybrid foxtail millet. 

Through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, FAO and China have been working together to improve rice and millet production and productivity in many countries in Africa. Numerous countries have acquired farming techniques, inputs and high-yield rice and millet varieties that have contributed to improved productivity, income and livelihood.