Agriculture plays a special role in the BRICs countries, directly affecting the livelihood of 42% of the global population. In recent years, the BRICs countries have continuously explored to build a long-term and stable cooperation mechanism, focused on food security and poverty reduction, strengthened knowledge sharing and technology exchange in agricultural production and technological innovation, deepened practical cooperation in agriculture, and achieved fruitful results.
In 2021, the total agricultural trade volume between BRICs countries and other countries reached US $588.3 billion, an increase of 128% over 2010. The international status of agriculture in the BRICs countries has been continuously improved, accounting for more than half of the world’s agricultural GDP. Agricultural science and technology cooperation has been promoted in a pragmatic manner, and the cooperation mechanism has been continuously improved. BRICs agricultural cooperation has contributed to global food security and injected impetus into economic recovery in the post epidemic era.
Complementary advantages show full toughness
In March this year, Suinong 42 and Henong 95, two soybean varieties bred by Suihua branch and Jiamusi branch of Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, were officially registered by the Russian national variety registration committee and included in the Russian national variety Access Catalogue.
China is not only a major soybean producer, but also the world’s largest soybean importer. Strengthening mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation in soybeans is not only conducive to meeting China’s consumer demand, but also conducive to promoting the development of Russian soybean industry. In june2019, China and Russia signed the development plan on deepening soybean cooperation, and reached important consensus on expanding soybean trade and deepening cooperation in the whole industrial chain of planting, processing, logistics, sales, scientific research, etc. Two months later, the first batch of more than 4400 tons of Russian soybeans arrived in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, opening a new chapter of China Russia soybeans in-depth cooperation.
“We are very willing to work closely with our Chinese partners to increase the total production and processing of soybean products.” Andreyevich, former director of the Export Development Department of agricultural industrial complex products of the Ministry of agriculture of the Russian Federation, said.
Soybean trade is the epitome of mutual benefit in agriculture between China and Russia. In 2021, the total trade volume of agricultural products between China and Russia was US $5.556 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.74%. “In recent years, agriculture has become a new growth point in Russia China cooperation. Our cooperation with China is mutually beneficial.” Andre bokalev, head of the regional branch of the Russian Federation of industrialists and entrepreneurs, said.
China is also the largest buyer of Brazilian soybeans, beef and chicken. Jean Tarun, special adviser of the Brazilian Ministry of agriculture, said that the agricultural trade between Brazil and China was “crucial”. “In 2021, Brazil’s agricultural exports to China exceeded 45billion US dollars. The complementary trade between the two countries has benefited Brazil’s food and agriculture industry a lot. Brazil is strengthening the image building of its products and diversifying its exports according to the needs of the Chinese market.”
Ronnie Lins, an economist and director of the Brazilian center for China studies, said that the BRICs countries have broad space for cooperation in the field of agricultural trade. On the one hand, the BRICs countries are rich in climate, environment, land, fisheries and other natural resources. They have about 50% of the world’s irrigation area, nearly 40% of the world’s grain production area, and about 3.2 billion people and market scale. They have a broad natural and market foundation for agricultural cooperation; On the other hand, BRICs countries are all large agricultural countries with high market matching. “In the post epidemic era, BRICs agricultural cooperation will continue to make important contributions to coping with the global food crisis.”.
Talent training promotes high-quality development
In 1994, abigit Che Saho, an Indian fisheries expert, visited China for the first time and participated in the Fourteenth International Training course organized by the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences. “This training completely changed my life. At that time, China provided me with a full scholarship and encouraged me to use the knowledge and technology I learned to help Indian farmers after returning to India.” For more than 20 years since then, Saho has been committed to strengthening the fishery cooperation between India and China, teaching Indian students how to apply Chinese fishery technology in India and introducing his successful experience. Saho told the reporter that many Indian students have successfully introduced China’s comprehensive fish culture model and increased their income.
“China’s practice has proved that aquaculture is an important way to help people shake off poverty and become rich. Many Indian officials have come to China to learn about their experience in this field.” Prakash Singh Badar, then chief minister of Punjab, said. In 2014, Badar visited China and visited a number of aquaculture farms, feed plants and freshwater fishery research centers in Wuxi. Badar was deeply impressed by the local development, which also prompted him to sign a memorandum with the Chinese side to support the two sides to carry out the student exchange program.
Over the years, the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences has trained more than 40 fishery experts for India by holding various technical assistance training courses. After the launch of the BRICs cooperation mechanism, the Research Center organized a training program for India, which effectively promoted the cooperation and development of fisheries production between the two sides.
Under the framework of BRICs cooperation, the five countries have strengthened joint training projects to cultivate professionals for the modernization of agriculture and rural areas in various countries. By the end of 2021, China’s Ministry of agriculture and rural areas had trained 295 agricultural technology and management personnel for South Africa, covering rice planting, agricultural machinery production and application, plant protection, renewable energy utilization, aquaculture and fishery management; China Agricultural University, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and scientific research institutions have trained more than 50 Ph.D. and master’s students in the field of agriculture for South Africa.
In recent years, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences has also carried out training services for Chinese and Russian agricultural enterprises, inviting experts from both countries to hold online and offline lectures to teach efficient soybean planting technology. Next, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences plans to cooperate with Russia to establish improved seed breeding bases, further deepen cooperation between science and enterprises, and promote Chinese soybean varieties.
“The BRICs countries are all large developing countries in various regions. They shoulder the important task of promoting poverty reduction cooperation and maintaining food security. Talent exchange and technical cooperation are crucial.” Saho said, “China has made great efforts to promote agricultural and rural development, solved the food security problem of more than 1.4 billion people, provided valuable experience for other BRICs countries, and laid a solid foundation for BRICs talent exchange and cooperation.”
Innovating mode to promote the development of the whole industry
In May this year, the China Brazil agricultural science and Technology Industrial Park project built by Longping Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Longping Brazil was signed in palacato, Minas, Brazil. As an agricultural industrial park solely constructed by China, after years of preparation and development, the project has completed the basic layout of 2 seed processing plants and 10 R & D sites in Brazil. At present, China is stepping up the construction of two new seed processing plants and three seed storage cold storages, which are expected to be put into operation in the second half of the year. Igor Santos, mayor of palacato, said that the development path of Chinese agricultural science enterprises in the local area “is highly consistent with the concept of sustainable economic development of palacato”.
Longping Brazil is an important scientific and technological innovation platform for the research and development of corn, sorghum, soybean and other crop seeds in Brazil. The planting area of corn seeds in Brazil is more than 60million mu, with a market share of more than 20%. It is reported that the new industrial park will form an industrial cluster in South America and integrate precision agriculture, field monitoring, mapping and other advanced agricultural technologies. These technologies will have a positive impact on local large-scale production enterprises and family agriculture, and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of agriculture. Tian min, Consul General of China in Rio de Janeiro, said that the park has provided a good example for the cooperation between China and Brazil and the BRICs countries. It is a practical measure for the BRICs parties to “build a high-quality partnership and jointly create a new era of global development” and contribute to the common realization of stronger, green and healthy global development.
E-commerce has become an important part of the digital economy and the real economy. E-commerce cooperation has also become an important force to promote the agricultural development and agricultural trade of BRICs countries. At present, agricultural products from Brazil, Russia and South Africa are entering thousands of households in China through e-commerce platforms, and agricultural investment among BRICs countries is heating up day by day. At the end of April this year, as one of the important activities in the economic and trade field of the BRICs “year of China”, the “buy in the BRICs” activity and the live broadcast of BRICs featured goods were officially opened. South Africa’s wine, Brazil’s coffee beans, India’s seasoning powder, Russia’s chocolate… There are all kinds of special commodities. As of May 12, the cumulative sales of China’s major e-commerce platforms exceeded 270Million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 133.5%. During the event, Chinese coffee operators also signed a strategic cooperation memorandum with their partners, and planned to purchase 45000 tons of coffee beans worth about 1.5 billion yuan from Brazil from 2023 to 2025.
Collins said that BRICs countries have important influence in the world. “We regard innovation and digital economy as the main growth points in the next few years. This will affect the world economy and help eradicate poverty and reduce social inequality.”. Luis Paulino, an expert on China issues at Sao Paulo State University in Brazil, believes that BRICs countries are promoting the development of “Internet + agriculture” and agricultural cross-border e-commerce, building “highways” and “through trains” for agricultural innovation and cooperation, and are creating a future with more emphasis on innovation and digital cooperation.
Source: People’s daily
Post time: Jun-24-2022