Nigeria, China sign agreement on agriculture sector development

Nigeria, China sign agreement on agriculture sector development
Paul Oke, Abuja

The Nigerian government and the Chinese government have signed an agreement aimed at improving both countries agriculture sector.

The Permanent Secretary of the Nigerian Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Fatima Bamidele, while receiving the Chinese Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Mr Zhang Toalin and his delegates said that the agreement would undoubtedly enhance economic relations between the two countries.

Developing the agriculture sector

She assured the Vice –Minister that the Nigerian government remained resolute and committed to the development of agriculture and aspired to achieve this with the support and collaboration of development partners.

Mrs Bamidele said: “Evidently, collaborative efforts have been recorded between Nigeria and china in the development of the Agriculture sector with particular reference to the south-south cooperation (SSC) programme under which Nigeria had enjoyed China’s immensurable supports as well as various capacity building and training programmes”

She also stated that records show that china played a vital role in the global economy being the second largest economy in the world, trailing the United States of America. Bamidele noted that Nigeria was China’s second largest trading partner in Africa with statistical trade figure crossing 7.3 billion dollars in 2009.

She said that the agriculture sector remained the largest contributor to Nigeria’s economy, accounting for over 42 per cent of the GDP and employing about 70 per cent of active labour force of over 140 million people

Improving cash crop production

She stressed that since China, which has a population of 1.3 billion people, had been able to attain food sufficiency through the development of irrigable land, Nigeria was hopeful of a large scale production of cash crops such as cocoa, sesame, soya bean and oil-palm, which are in high demand in China as well as export of fish and livestock products.

Collaboration

Mrs Bamidele also emphasized the readiness of Nigeria to learn from China’s experience in the area of Agro-Trade, Agro technology, quality and safety management of farm produce, protection of agricultural ecology and the environment

The Vice-Minister, Mr Zhange, promised that mechanical and technical training of farmers would commerce in Nigeria by August.

Williams