- 来源：farmers’ daily
- 编辑：姚雯祎
- 作者：zhang zhenyu
eritrea is an eastern african country, located in the northernmost part of the horn of africa and its topography resembles a key. as a gateway to the red sea and the indian ocean, it is geographically significant. the local climate is mainly rainfed agriculture, with two seasons in rain and drought, and the rainfall mainly concentrates between june and september, most of its areas are relatively dry and the arable land only accounts for 4.28% of the total land area. despite harsh natural conditions, agriculture remains a pillar industry in eritrea, with more than 80% of the population engaging in farming. in order to promote agricultural development, the country has made increasing input in agricultural production.
on november 29, 2021, at the eighth ministerial conference of the forum on china-africa cooperation (focac), nine programs were put forward, including a program on reducing reduction and delivering benefits to farmers. sino-africa agricultural cooperation is an important part of this program. based on the new framework of sino-africa cooperation and with the guidance of the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs(mara), the ministry of commerce, the china international development cooperation agency and other competent authorities, as well as the strong support from the chinese embassy in eritrea, the center of international cooperation service of mara has successfully launched the phase-iii technical assistance project of the high-level agricultural expert group(hereinafter referred to as “the expert group”). the project sent three senior agricultural experts to eritrea between february and march, 2022 for a two-year technical assistance mission. up to now, the assistance work in various fields has been carried out in an orderly manner and delivered initial results, which have been highly recognized by relevant parties.
select suitable varieties by comparative demonstration
asmara, the capital of eritrea, sits at an elevation of 2,400 meters on the hamasen plateau. from the high vantage point of the city, the sea of clouds shrouds the city, making it a well-known “city above the clouds”. the average temperature in asmara in november is between 15℃ and 23℃, which is comfortably cool. the expert group of has been working locally for nine months. they have set up planting demonstration sites in mahano, akria and adikeye, demonstrating the planting of apple seedlings and varieties of broad bean, red kidney bean and rape introduced from china, and conducted comparison experiments with local varieties.
according to liu yunmin, head of the expert group, the comparative demonstration planting experiments have delivered initial results. at the apple demonstration site, one hundred and ninety chinese apple seedlings are growing well, with the average height ranging from 1.8 meters to 2 meters and the tallest one reaching 2.3 meters. at the bean demonstration area, the chinese broad bean varieties have produced plump pods with large and fat seeds. at the demonstration site of oil-bearing crops, the rape varieties from china are already bearing fruit, with branches fully covered with pods. compared with the local varieties, the chinese varieties have the advantages of short growth period and high yield potential.
chinese oilseed rape varieties (left) and local oilseed rape varieties (right) at the oil crop demonstration site.
“they must stand the tests before we can tell whether they are good or not.” liu yunmin said. china and eritrea are immensely different in environmental climate and production conditions. the adaptability of varieties introduced from china is the priority considered by the expert group. the specific experimenting method is to compare the different performance of chinese varieties and local varieties in disease resistance and yield under the same climatic environment, planting conditions and management techniques, so as to understand the adaptation of chinese varieties and find ways to improve the local varieties.
on november 15, h.e. arefaine berhe, eritrean agricultural minister, and cai ge, chinese ambassador to eritrea led a team to visit demonstration site. the 78-year-old eritrean minister was lavish with his praise for the plump pods of chinese broad beans when he saw them. he picked and peeled a broad bean pod and tasted them himself. he also suggested the ambassador and the counsellor tasting the broad bean seeds together. the minister spoke highly of the demonstration model of the expert group and hoped that it would be gradually promoted throughout eritrea next year.
ambassador cai ge (first from left) and minister h.e. arefaine berhe (third from left) tasted chinese broad bean varieties.
chinese fruit seedlings were successfully planted in eritrea for the first time
lack of varieties is one of the restrictions for agricultural development in eritrea. in eritrea, an egg is priced at an equivalent of five yuan. for ordinary people, even if they can afford the high prices, there is no rich variety to choose from. wang li, a member of the expert group said: “most of the apples sold in the local market are imported from turkey and other neighboring countries. the price of a kilogram of apples is 140 nakfa, about 70 yuan. the apple is of the size of a small fist, and the taste is not quite pleasant.”
the chinese mara donated 210 apple seedlings produced from baishui county, weinan city, shaanxi province, to eritrea so that its people can enjoy crisp and sweet apples. as the seedlings need to be planted before the start of eritrea’s rainy season to ensure a high survival rate, they need to arrive in eritrea in june.
“generally speaking, the export of fruit seedlings has to go through a range of procedures such as approval and quarantine, and it takes 4 to 6 months from application for approval to customs clearance. as the situation was quite urgent, the mara secured a green channel for us to expediate the approval process.” liu yunmin said.
chinese apple seedlings were seen during customs clearance at asmara airport on june 2, 2022
after coordinating with various parties, chinese apple seedlings were smoothly transported to eritrea in june. as the storage time of apple seedlings is short, it is necessary to finish planting as soon as possible. according to wang li, the apple seedlings arrived at asmara’s airport at noon local time on june 2 and finished customs clearance at 3 p.m. by 10 p.m. on the same day, the expert group had completed all the work, including apple seedling planting and irrigation.
the expert group was able to finish the planting quickly because they had done sufficient work before the seedlings arrived. “we improved the soil in the demonstration site ahead of time. we also drilled a well and organized more than a dozen workers to dig 300 pits with a length, width and depth of 1 meter. we planned for nearly two months for site selection, earth transportation and pit-digging.” wang li said.
chinese apple seedlings planted in demonstration field.
with the efforts of the expert group, the survival rate of chinese fruit seedlings reached over 98%, and the growth rate is very encouraging. of course, the efforts of introducing varieties go beyond this. in the future, these mature fruit trees will continue to be used for variety cultivation. with promotion of planting these varieties, they will become local dominant varieties, and play a key role in enriching the fruit market in eritrea and bringing big and sweet apples to local people.
technical training has contributed to the rapid development of agriculture
another restriction for agricultural development in eritrea is the backward agricultural technology. zhou cheng, a member of the expert group, found during his work that local farmers had not mastered the field management technology of rape. for example, bird netting, a technique used to prevent bird pecking through erecting nets over rape fields, has been effective in preventing bird infestation. chinese experts introduced the bird repellent net into the local area and selected the same variety of rape field for the experiment. the rape field with bird repellent net was more productive than the rape field with a.jpgicial bird repellent method, which saved time and effort. farmers are very surprised and eager to get training from the expert group.
at present, the expert group mainly carries out two kinds of training in eritrea. one is the hands-on training. the expert group first teaches and demonstrates a series of field management techniques, such as sowing, weeding and fertilizing, disease and insect control, flood control and drainage, drought resistance and irrigation, and then the farmers carry out practical operations. the other is centralized training. the main target trainees are local agricultural officials, agricultural experts and technicians, etc. the expert group will pass on the skills to them, and then they will provide guidance to the local farmers.
“our hands-on training is targeted for individual farmers,” zhou said. “however, we train a group of professional technicians to guide local farmers, which could help technological promotion go deeper and broader.” over the past few months, the expert group has held six training workshops in eritrea, training a total of more than 120 person-times.
zhou cheng, the oil crop expert, gives technical training to local farmers.
the three experts of the expert group have all participated in the assistance program in africa for many times. among them, liu yunmin has been engaged in such work in africa for nearly 20 years, during which he has worked across various african countries. “after the first year’s assistance project in nigeria, i returned to china. in the second year, i went back to nigeria, and found that the boy in the countryside who learned from me to grow pineapples got married, had children, and built a new house, and his family changed substantively. he told me that the project gave him all these, and it was china’s agricultural technology that changed his life. his remarks strongly motivated me to continue participating in foreign assistance work in the future.”
as a chinese saying goes that it’s better to teach a man fishing than to give him fish. both the chinese seeds and seedlings have now taken root and sprouted in the “city above the clouds”, and it will grow and flourish with the joint efforts of the two peoples.
