Landless Chinese farmers migrate to Africa in search of agricultural opportunities

Jacques Cassiman, a famous European geneticist with a heart for Africa, was once asked what the future has in store for Europe's youth, who live in a continent whose population is ageing rapidly. His answer: in a 'reverse migration' of sorts, the creative and courageous ones will move to Africa, where they will find countless exciting opportunities no longer available in the old, grey continent. And when they migrate, they will be surprised to find many Chinese collegues in their newfound African homeland.

It seems like the Afro-optimist's vision is partly becoming a reality. China's presence in Africa is growing rapidly. As is well known, the People's Republic is involved in massive infrastructure projects, in the construction sector, in the oil and minerals industry. But what few people know is that more and more poor Chinese farmers are migrating to the continent too, in search for agricultural opportunities (see story below).

In fact, the Chinese government is actively encouraging them to do so. Landless and small farmers, as well as rural Chinese forced off their land and unable to find urban jobs in the emerging megacities are called on by the country's Export-Import Bank to move to Africa to become farm owners and practise their agricultural skills.

Rural exodus
China's rapid urbanisation is transforming millions of farmers into urban dwellers - a process described by some as the largest rural exodus in the history of mankind - but finding them jobs is becoming increasingly difficult.

The plans for the city of Chongqing speak for themselves: under a National Development and Reform Commission plan for rapid urbanisation, the place is being turned into a gigantic megalopolis that will house several tens of millions of people. The central government embarked on an economic policy that is aimed at developing western China - the 'China Western Development strategy' - and Chongqing is planned to become the 'Gateway' that will open up this part of the country. Chongqing is located at the head of the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam and will see ocean going ships arrive at its quays soon. Beijing wants the city to become the 'Chicago of the East', and is pumping billions into its infrastructures.

The project is estimated to result in the transformation of some 12 million farmers into urbanites by 2020. A large proportion of these relocated people will not find jobs easily and would be better of utilizing their skills to help both African farmers and themselves - so the government thinks.

Li Ruogu, head of the Chinese Export-Import Bank, explains the overseas migration plan, the logic of which is simple but powerful.

Chongqing is well experienced in agricultural mass production, while in Africa there is plenty of land but food production is unsatisfactory. There is huge room for co-operation on both sides. We have already supported several agricultural projects in Africa, all of which are generating very sound profits. Chongqing's labour exports have just started, but they will take off once we convince the farmers to become landlords abroad. [...] the bank will give full support to the farmers in terms of capital investment, project development and product-selling channels.

Chongqing's deputy mayor Zhou Mubing says the local authorities and business sector too will encourage farmers to go overseas.

Boosting crop yields
Regional governments have been sending farmers to Africa for years, with more than 13,000 rural people from Baoding in Hebei province alone leaving for the troubled continent in the past decade, establishing 'Baoding villages' there. These farmers are working in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Senegal, growing crops efficiently with African partners and then turning them into food products.

The enormous availability of land and the potential to boost Africa's crop yields dramatically are key incentives for China's migrant farmers. African farmers themselves remain highly unproductive and their Chinese collegues may well be bringing the necessary catalyst to change this situation. They have the skills and increasingly the channels with which to import the basic inputs needed to make Africa's farming sector productive.

According to Liu Jianjun of the China-Africa Business Council, which helps Chinese firms find business opportunities in Africa, the mainland's farmers are effectively using their expertise to help Africans mechanise farms, select better seeds and inputs, manage production more efficiently, and market products better. The result is precisely what African countries need: an increase in crop yields and improved marketing of food:
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If the Chinese continue to help local ruralites acquire basic farming skills and cooperate with communities in marketing the products, this could prove to be a win-win situation for both. The process might be more effective than the countless asssistance programs offered by the West and international organisations, aimed at improving African agriculture.

Liu Jianjun, who has helped relocate more than 10,000 Chinese farmers, thinks the productive synergy between both continents will result in tens of thousands more farmers arriving in Africa over the coming years.

At first, people were not willing to go to Africa because it's too hot, there are diseases and there are wars. But after the Chinese government called for people to go, they were more positive.

There are no official figures on the total number of Chinese farmers in Africa yet, but the mainland's labour exports this year had grown by 33 per cent compared with last year, the Ministry of Commerce found. A gross estimate says that more than 750,000 Chinese are now making a living in Africa (in all sectors, including agriculture).

Personal motivation
This latest wave of Chinese migrants is, however, not the first to have travelled to Africa. In the 1960s, China's communist leader Mao Zedong forged close links with the continent in a bid to garner political support. But the Chinese who have moved to Africa in the last 10 years are going for economic, not political reasons as they did under Mao.

According to Chris Alden, of the South African Institute of International Affairs, who has written a book titled China in Africa, the Chinese are already changing the economic landscape there as they seek to enrich not just their companies and their country, but also themselves. And their influence is set to grow.

Alden says with so many poor farmers in China unable to make a living off the land, Africa presents a host of inviting opportunities. "There's not the sense that the streets are paved with gold but, for people who cannot find work, Africa is a realistic opportunity."

Story of a nurse-turned Chinese farmer in Zambia
An hour from Zambia's capital Lusaka towards the end of a 30-km highway and an 18-km rugged untarred road, Johnken Farm stands out like an oasis amongst the wilderness of Africa. This farm, as wild as any other surrounding unclaimed land 12 years ago, has now become a flagship and a token of the Chinese- Zambian cooperation in agriculture.

Eggs produced in Johnken Farm are sent to Lusaka and other cities every day, snatching 10 percent of the whole market of Zambia. Together with its 1,000 head of cattle and over 2,000 pigs, the 3,500-hectare farm is the biggest one among a dozen of Chinese-owned farms in Zambia.

Behind the success of Johnken is the middle-aged Chinese woman, Li Li, 43, who came to Zambia to support her husband, Wang Chi, former managing director of the farm, but ended to shoulder the task by herself after Wang passed away one and a half years ago.

The early days with the farm was a struggle of the couple against harsh wilderness, bad infrastructure and inexperience. Wang used to be a university lecturer in Beijing before he arrived in Zambia with his African dream. His wife, Li, gave up her nurse career in a famous hospital in the Chinese capital of Beijing and followed Wang here.

They had to begin their work with cutting down bushes and grass along with 100-plus local employees to turn the primitive area into cultivable farmland. Electricity was then connected to the farm and boreholes were drilled for irrigation.

They came to the farm in 1994 with 200 chickens. As there was no henhouse at that time, they had to share their house with the chickens. Li recalled that at the beginning neither she nor Wang knew the proper water temperature for unhairing until they finally looked it up shortly before they put their processed chicken on market.

With its good reputation and considerable profit return, Johnken Farm was awarded by the Zambian National Commercial Bank ( ZANACO) a loan of about 1 million U.S. dollars. With the loan, Johnken Farm began to expand its business by planting wheat after it installed a computer-controlled center- pivot sprinkling irrigation system, which is widely used in large- scale commercial farms but the first one in a Chinese-owned farm in Zambia.

"You have to become big and strong with modern advanced technologies and have a bearing on the market. Otherwise you will risk being edged out of the market," Li said. With that in mind, she suggests that small- and medium-sized Chinese farms in Zambia merge to challenge the competition from other large-scale farms.

Meanwhile, Li said the Chinese government should encourage state-owned conglomerates to come to Zambia to turn the vast agricultural potential into reality.

When it comes to bioenergy and biofuels, it is well known that Africa has the largest longterm potential of all regions. By 2050, the continent is projected to be capable of sustaining a production of around 300 Exajoules of exportable bioenergy, in an explicitly sustainable manner, that is after all food, fiber, fodder and forest products for rapidly growing local populations are met and without any deforestation. To turn this theoretical potential into a reality, more efficient farming practises are a basic requirement. It could well prove to be the case that the influx of skilled Chinese farmers, and their growing investments in rural infrastructures, signals a first step in that direction.

As for Cassiman's vision of a Euro-African 'reverse migration': the Chinese are coming. But when will the Europeans?

Photo: a Chinese agronomist cooperating with an African collegue. Credit: SciDev.

References:
South China Morning Post: Landless farmers urged to migrate to Africa - September 19, 2007.

BBC: China in Africa: Developing ties - November 29, 2007.

People's Daily Online: Africa Feature: Story of nurse-turned Chinese farmer in Zambia - October 23, 2006.

Chris Alden, China in Africa, Zed Books, Series Title: African Arguments Series, 2007.

Two blogs by Biopact members on China's growing influence in Africa, but no longer maintained: China in Africa and Peaceful Rising.