Liu Yutao, an agronomist at Nanjing Agricultural University in Jiangsu Province, China, is preparing to return to Kenya, where he has been working for nearly three years after a brief stay in China. Liu is dedicated to helping local farmers grow tomatoes. “Tomatoes are an important vegetable for Kenya, but in recent years, diseases and pests such as bacterial wilt and leaf miners have severely threatened the country’s tomato production, causing significant yield losses and, in some regions, complete crop failure,” said Liu. Along with his Chinese colleagues, Liu is working to promote modern agriculture across Africa by utilizing China’s advanced agricultural technologies in collaboration with African nations.
China’s grafting technology offers a solution for tomato farmers in Kenya. This technology, widely and successfully used in China for the cultivation of melons, vegetables, and fruit trees, has proven to be a mature and reliable agricultural practice. In 2022, Nanjing Agricultural University and Egerton University in Kenya decided to introduce and promote tomato grafting technology to empower rural youth in Kenya by innovating the tomato value chain. By the end of 2023, the program had secured funding from the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Joshua Ogweno, the Kenyan director of the Confucius Institute at Egerton University, highlighted that the tomato grafting technology from China is well-suited to Kenya’s local environment and has significantly improved agricultural productivity. More than 4,000 Kenyan farmers have received training in greenhouse agriculture and tomato grafting technology. This technology is expected to reduce the incidence of bacterial wilt in local tomatoes from 90% to below 10%, increase annual yields from near-total crop failure to 90 tons per hectare, and boost income by approximately 1.5 million Kenyan shillings (around 11,600 USD) per hectare. Earlier this month, the China-Africa Innovation Forum saw the launch of the China-Africa Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the African Academy of Sciences. The alliance aims to promote the development of modern agriculture in China and Africa, with a focus on food security, biosecurity, and green development. It also seeks to enhance cooperation in areas such as sustainable development, remote sensing, big data applications, pollution control, and poverty alleviation through science and technology. Over the past three years, China has sent over 500 experts to Africa and provided 9,000 training opportunities for agricultural talents. By the end of 2023, China had established 24 agricultural demonstration centers in Africa, introducing over 300 advanced technologies, including dense planting of corn, vegetable cultivation, and rapid propagation of cassava. These efforts have benefited more than 1 million local households. According to African experts, China plays a significant role in modernizing agriculture across the continent.