In May, the United Nations and its partners including regional and national authorities, humanitarian and development agencies held a briefing on the drought emergency in Southern Africa.

The briefing in Pretoria, South Africa on June 5, highlighted the severe impacts of El Niño and the climate-driven crisis in this part of the world with more than 30 million people across Southern Africa affected by a severe drought. The meeting established that millions could be pushed into acute hunger unless support is urgently mobilized to scale before the next lean season, and already an extraordinary summit by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that saw the launch of a regional appeal in May seeking $5.5 billion to provide urgent lifesaving assistance, to help with recovery and long-term climate resilience.

The situation is dire. Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe are all grappling with the impact of the drought, while Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have declared states of emergency. The UN and partners are supporting national and regional response efforts.

The El Niño phenomenon, which started globally in July 2023, led to a severe rainfall deficit across the Southern African region, with temperatures five degrees above average. This year, Southern Africa experienced its driest February in 100 years, receiving 20 per cent of the usual rainfall expected for this period. Reena Ghelani, the UN Climate Crisis Coordinator for the El Niño / La Niña Response related how, “Rural communities we have met on the ground tell us they have never seen anything like this.”

Patrice Talla, the Subregional Coordinator in Southern Africa for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) said: “…the magnitude of the challenge calls for additional resources to effectively respond to the crisis and safeguard lives and livelihoods. Support should focus on building the climate resilience of communities, otherwise unless resilience and early recovery support is ensured, communities will not recover and farmers will not be able to plant during the next season, perpetuating humanitarian needs.”

The situation in Southern Africa is replicated elsewhere in Africa. Oxfam says in a report that in East Africa, across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and the autonomous region of Somaliland, 10.7 million people are facing severe hunger.

“Droughts are not new to this region, but they are intensifying,” Oxfam says.

Critical juncture

Like in Southern Africa, East Africa is facing a critical juncture where food insecurity has to be confronted head on, especially against the backdrop of climate change which is worsening extreme weather events.

The forthcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) Summit to be held in Beijing, the capital of China in September, should help Africa find solutions in agriculture to fight hunger through cooperation with China.

Already, there is firm grounding for agricultural cooperation as the two sides have been cooperating in policies and activities on a whole range of solutions across the continent.

Further, in 2021 during the 8th Focac Ministerial Summit held in Dakar, Senegal, the two sides discussed a range of cooperation mechanisms that could lift Africa out of hunger – and this year’s event should take stock of progress and ensure there is sufficient movement to ensure that the perils of hunger and droughts are checked.

But what did the two sides agree last time out?

According to the Dakar Action Plan, agriculture is one of the nine programmes that China will cooperate with Africa and there were a number of commitments and opportunities outlined in the Dakar Action Plan with respect to agriculture.

These include leveraging the various economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa to advance cooperation across the whole industrial chain of agro-products, covering planting, processing and selling, so as to jointly enhance Africa’s capacity for localized processing of agro-products and increase the added value of agro-products. China and Africa undertook to work to improve the conditions of roads linking urban and rural areas, small water management and irrigation facilities in villages and townships, food storage and basic  processing facilities, renewable energy power facilities, and small agricultural  mechanization equipment in African countries.

China pledged to continue to strengthen cooperation and exchanges with Africa in fishery and support promoting the development of the fishery industry  of Africa while the African side would introduce policies  that are more conducive to China-Africa fishery cooperation to attract more  investment from China and deliver mutually beneficial outcomes through  cooperation.

Regarding, the agricultural technology  demonstration centers already established in Africa, China would continue to strengthen personnel  training and exchanges as well as agricultural technology trials and  demonstrations, and speed up the integrated application of technological  outcomes suited to the agricultural conditions of African countries. The two  sides will conduct cooperation on the development and utilization of Juncao,  hybrid rice, hybrid millet and other technologies.

Further, China pledged to send 500 agricultural experts to African countries to carry  out plan making, policy consultation, technical demonstration, on-site teaching  and capacity training; and support the development of  peasants’ schools and hold thematic skill training sessions for African rural  development leaders in China, in order to support Africa to train local leaders  of rural development and foster a talent pool for Africa’s agricultural and  rural development.

With an eye on the future, China undertook to continue to implement the plan for cultivating  African young pioneers in agricultural scientific research, and set up a number  of China-Africa joint centers for modern agrotechnology exchange, demonstration  and training in China as well strengthen science and technology cooperation in  areas such as sustainable agriculture, water-saving irrigation, grain loss  reduction, and climate response in agriculture, and establish a China-Africa seed technology research and innovation platform and a joint research center for  digital agriculture.

Another key area that China pledged support was market-based investment in Africa’s agricultural  industry, supporting African countries in enhancing their capacity for independent  agricultural development, and invest in grain and cash crop production projects  in such forms as greenfield investment, equity participation, mergers and  acquisitions, and leasing, in order to extend the scope of Chinese agricultural  investment in Africa from planting to warehousing, logistics, processing, and international trade.

It is time for Africa to take advantage of China’s commitments to implement programmes and projects that will lead to actual results on the ground, and help fight hunger and droughts that are making people suffer through ensuring food security.

Cornerstone

In Zimbabwe, the concept of agriculture demonstration sites has taken root, but the Government needs to lay out a solid plan of action to take advantage of China’s commitments towards improving agriculture and ensure food security.

For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Ding said China is committed to strengthening agricultural cooperation with Zimbabwe.

During a recent tour of an agriculture demonstration village in Zvimba, Mashonaland East, Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Zhou Ding said: “Agriculture remains the cornerstone of our economy. As an all-weather friend, China has always supported Zimbabwe’s agricultural development and food security. China is committed to supporting Zimbabwe to improve its agricultural infrastructure.”

He revealed that China had drilled more than 1,000 boreholes in Zimbabwe over the past years, providing access to water for thousands of people across the country. In addition, China has invested in irrigation facilities in Zimbabwe, which has promoted agricultural productivity.

Since 2009, China has dispatched six groups of agricultural experts to Zimbabwe.

Like all other policies, China does not impose its will on African people and responds to request from.host governments on areas that need cooperation. It is clear that the majority of African countries are not doing enough to plan and execute agriculture cooperation projects with China, despite the latter opening up to cooperation and assistance. There is a noticeable lethargy in implementing and coming up with fresh ideas and projects that could help the people.

This could also be a challenge to other stakeholders and non-state actors such as civil society, learning institutions and the private sector to open lines of cooperation with China with the goal of fighting hunger, induced by drought and climate change.

It is also critical to note that improvements in agriculture may also be tied to poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation, which China has provided other success stories. It is therefore important for African leaders to use the platform of Focac to firmly place Chins-Africa relations on a developmental and productive path.

*Ndoro is an associate researcher with Ruzivo Media and Resource Centre a local think tank that specialises in analysing global and local issues with focus on China-Africa cooperation and the Global South.