The field floor, the tractor is ringing. It's on the tractor. The pilot's working. This is the working scene of the “beautiful city village” in the central african city of benin. “we have grown cotton for generations. Since the tractor was used, the first three days of agricultural work are now half a day。
“beautiful village” is the site of the china cotton technical assistance project for benin. The technical cooperation project on cotton in central bed, which began in 2013, promoted the upgrading of benin's cotton production and helped local farmers to become rich and poor by carrying out such activities as seed selection for cotton, demonstration of planting techniques, training in agro-mechanical techniques and agricultural equipment assistance. To date, the project has cumulatively completed 14 training sessions, with more than 500 trainees, covering several regions of benin。
In may of this year, nahom and 34 other participants participated in the first mid-baby cotton machine technology course in 2022. In theoretical and practical courses, they systematically learn the basics of agricultural machinery and are skilled in the techniques of operation and maintenance of agricultural machinery such as tractors, seeders and deflators. “we all passed the exams, and the aid project added new farm equipment to the village.” naholm was impressed by the careful patience of chinese experts。
In contrast to the previous patterns of agricultural production in the village, nahom lamented: “for the most part, the villagers used self-sufficient farming, doing a lot of work and producing less cotton alone.” the rural landscape of benin has changed dramatically by joining the model cooperative for cotton cultivation, which is the responsibility of the project team。
“the farmers, under the guidance of chinese experts, continue to optimize techniques such as ploughing, sowing, etc., resulting in a significant increase in cotton production.” naholm smiled and said: “the villagers' incomes have increased several times, and the better they are. In particular, some agricultural technicians have not only extended their homes on several occasions, but have also purchased their own agricultural machinery.”
Also full of harvests at the training course was a 26-year-old native, simbia benabin, who was proud to say, “because we can help the village grow fast cotton and harvest it, the villagers now call us the cotton man.”
In order to train local agricultural talent, the project team, in addition to organizing annual training courses in agro-machine technology, also cooperated with the chika agricultural vocational and technical school in the vicinity of the site to include graduates of the school in internships at the cotton base. Chinese experts have also promoted cotton-specific farming projects to raise awareness of agricultural mechanization and the use of agricultural machinery among beninese farmers。
Benin is an important cotton-producing country in africa, with a national production of 800,000 tons last year. “we will continue to increase our technical assistance for cotton, further reducing the intensity of the labour of local cotton farmers, increasing productivity, increasing local incomes and helping benin to modernize its agriculture at an early date.” first of all, courage。
Cooperation in the field of cotton cultivation has been fruitful. The representative of the benin cotton institute stated that, with the full cooperation of becca agricultural experts, benin was on track to achieve the target of 1 million tons of cotton by next year. The technical adviser to the ministry of agriculture, livestock and fisheries of benin, bagang, stated that the china cotton technical assistance project for benin was an important driving force in the modernization of benin's agriculture, “thank you very much for the hard work of chinese agricultural experts”。
