The
Republic of China has said the country effectively lifted 138 million citizens
out of chronic hunger since 1990 and have reached the Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) of halving the prevalence of hunger ahead of the 2015
deadline, NaijaAgroNet reports.
This
revelation, NaijaAgroNet reports, was made during the signing of
a $50 million, about N9.94 billion agreement between China
and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to support developing countries in
building sustainable food systems including agricultural value chains,
recognizing the growing importance of collaboration between Southern countries
in the fight against extreme hunger and poverty.
Mr.
Wang Yang, Vice Premier,
China, NaijaAgroNet learnt, said, "China is the
leading agricultural producer among the developing countries; FAO is the
world's top agricultural organization. We are ready to enhance our cooperation
with FAO, which will not only benefit agricultural development and progress
toward hunger reduction targets, but also the poor and hungry people of
the world."
NaijaAgroNet reports
that China's new contribution to the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust
Fund will support the exchange of Chinese agricultural experts with countries
in the global South, particularly in low-income food-deficit areas of Central
Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa and Latin America, over a period of five
years.
The
Trust Fund has supported knowledge exchanges through 11 country projects
and two global initiatives in areas such as irrigation, horticulture, livestock
protection, and food processing and marketing.
During
the first phase, Chinese experts deployed to host countries will stay for
two-to-three years, train local farmers in using adaptable and affordable
technologies for crop, animal and water management, while the second phase will
expand on the lessons learned so far, sharing best practices and supporting
host countries in developing sound policies, building institutional capacities,
facilitating the transfer of new technologies, working with
research centres and other partners.
Cyriacus Nnaji/
GEE