Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers (ATDCs) have proved an effective form of aid to Africa, according to research led by Duke Kunshan Professor Jingbo Cui.
Published by China Economic Quarterly, a major Chinese economics journal, the study found ATDCs, which provide agricultural technology and training to African farmers, have led to increased production, lower food prices and less reliance on foreign trade.
“The centers have worked as a long-term aid solution, helping communities across Africa become more self-reliant,” he said. “Our findings have important policy implications for the future of aid to Africa, and elsewhere, not just in terms of agriculture, but in other areas as well,” he added.
Dr. Cui, an associate professor of applied economics at DKU, worked on the project with Shen Lin, an assistant research scientist at the Institute of World Economics and Politics in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, researching the effectiveness of ATDCs, which Chinese companies and institutions began setting up on the African continent in 2006. Fourteen centers have been launched to date in Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, South Africa and elsewhere, with the aim of providing high-tech farming technology and training across the agricultural industrial chain, from production to storage, processing and sales, in an effort to boost harvests and reduce poverty.
Cui and Lin examined crop data from 2000 to 2018, backing up their study with a series of robustness checks. They found the centers had achieved their aims, with profound implications for localized agriculture and rural development.
The most prominent effects of the ATCDs were to increase agricultural output, lower food prices, cut dependence on foreign trade, and reduce food shortages, they found. These effects were most pronounced at centers operated by Chinese state-owned enterprises.
The findings have important policy implications, according to Cui, both demonstrating the effectiveness of ATCDs and providing a more scientific and rigorous response to certain doubts and misunderstandings about China’s foreign aid.
They also “provide a blueprint for future China-Africa cooperation and other international cooperation, which could go beyond agriculture,” he added.
They also “provide a blueprint for future China-Africa cooperation and other international cooperation, which could go beyond agriculture,” he added.
