By Learnmore Nyoni & Onias Chafikaso
China has since 2009 been sending teams of agricultural experts to Zimbabwe to provide technical assistance and share China’s experiences in fighting poverty through agriculture, said Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhou Din at the official launch of Zvimba Farmers Cooperative Club in Mashonaland West province yesterday.
The sixth team comprised of seven technical experts arrived in the country last September and have been working closely with communities in Zvimba to rehabilitate the Demonstration Village run by the Zvimba Farmers Cooperative Club.
The team has managed to set up a solarised borehole that supports 300families and restored a hatchery at the Demonstration Village which hatches no less than 6000 eggs at one go.
The China-Zimbabwe agricultural cooperation and poverty reduction Demonstration Village in Zvimba was set up in 2019 to promote sustainable agriculture..
China-Aid has also been supporting access to clean drinking water for almost half a million citizens in the country.
“China has to date completed more than 1000 boreholes across the country, providing access to clean drinking water for more than 400 000 people. In the next two years, China will drill an additional 300 boreholes in Zimbabwe.
“China has also built the Valley Dam and irrigation projects for Zimbabwe, which have promoted local agricultural production,” said Ambassador Zhou Din.
A number of Chinese firms have been taking advantage of the friendly relations with Zimbabwe to invest heavily in the country.
China is now the biggest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco with half of Zimbabwe’s tobacco production exported to China.
Tian Ze Tobacco a Chinese Agro-enterprise is undertaking contract farming in Zimbabwe and exporting more than US$700 million worth of tobacco annually to China.
China also imports huge amounts of macadamia nuts and fresh citrus from Zimbabwe and is negotiating an agreement to import avocados from Zimbabwe.