2nd Africa-Britain-China (ABC) Conference on Agriculture and Fisheries

12th November 2013. Beijing, China. The UK and Chinese Governments are joining forces to facilitate agricultural technology transfer to low-income countries with the launch of a programme, the first of its kind, at the 2nd Africa-Britain-China (ABC) Conference on Agriculture and Fisheries.

The UK Department for International Development and Ministry of Agriculture of China will collaborate under a new programme, working in Partnership with China to Accelerate Agricultural Technology Transfer to Low Income Countries (AgriTT). The programme will support the sharing of experience in agricultural development with low-income countries in order to improve agricultural productivity and food security for poor people. It starts from 2012 and will end in March 2016.

The AgriTT programme will work with the Malawi and Uganda Governments to establish pilots to disseminate technology and management practices on sustainable agriculture, particularly from China. It will also support researchers from Africa, Southeast Asia, China and the UK to work jointly to develop innovative solutions to agricultural productivity improvement in low-income countries.

Background:

The China-UK Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network (SAIN) has been established to provide a coherent framework for the development and implementation of China-UK collaboration on sustainable agriculture. It will support the aims of the existing China-UK Sustainable Development Dialogue (SDD) and provide a flexible and enduring platform for long-term China-UK collaboration in this area. Development of SAIN is included in the SDD Work Programme on Sustainable Agriculture and Fisheries (dated May 2008), which sets out priority areas of collaboration between the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).