Explore the new path of agricultural cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries

A few days ago, the International Agricultural Cooperation Sub-Forum of the "China+Five Central Asian Countries" Industrial and Investment Cooperation Forum ended in Qingdao, Shandong Province. China and the five Central Asian countries' trade partners gathered to discuss the agricultural cooperation path between China and the five Central Asian countries. At the forum, the participants gave a keynote speech on the theme of promoting agricultural industrial cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries, and also conducted in-depth exchanges around the topic of "high-quality development of the entire agricultural industrial chain" to explore new models of international agricultural cooperation.

It is understood that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the five Central Asian countries for more than 30 years, cooperation in the field of agricultural industry has been deepening. Over the past 30 years, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries has increased more than 100 times. The scale of agricultural products trade has increased from 175 million US dollars in 1992 to 1.073 billion US dollars in 2021. More and more Chinese enterprises are investing in the five Central Asian countries. By the end of 2021, China's agricultural investment stock in the five Central Asian countries was nearly 400 million US dollars, and nearly 3000 local employees were employed. The cooperation projects covered wheat flour and vegetable oil processing, cattle and sheep breeding and slaughtering processing, cotton planting and textiles, and contributed to the development of local agriculture.

The second secretary of the Kyrgyz Embassy in China, Bekboyev Daniel, said that Kyrgyzstan attaches importance to the development of green agriculture. The agricultural products that can be exported to China include cherries, melons, flour, dairy products, honey, and so on. He very much hopes to deepen agricultural cooperation with China. The trade cooperation between Kazakhstan and China is also growing steadily. The data shows that the bilateral agricultural product trade volume between China and Kazakhstan will increase by two times year-on-year in 2022. Aizhen, the chief representative of the Beijing Representative Office of the State Grain Trade Group of Kazakhstan, said that Kazakhstan and China had signed a series of protocols, including the export of more than 20 kinds of agricultural products from planting and aquaculture to China.

In recent years, China and the five Central Asian countries have continuously strengthened agricultural science and technology cooperation and exchanges, driven the cooperation of the entire agricultural industry chain, and realized the complementarity of advanced agricultural technology, land, germplasm resources and human resources with the five Central Asian countries. At the same time, China and the five Central Asian countries have also made efforts in the areas of mutual benefit, collaborative innovation and building a community of shared future for the development of modern and high-quality agriculture.

It is reported that in order to strengthen agricultural science and technology cooperation with the five Central Asian countries, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has established the Central Asian Agricultural Research Center, focusing on five major research directions - high-quality cotton technology innovation, western characteristic forest and fruit industry, biosafety, agricultural product quality improvement and processing, and Gobi ecological agriculture. At present, the Research Center has jointly established the "the Belt and Road" International Cotton Industry Science and Technology Innovation Institute with scientific research institutions and enterprises such as the Uzbekistan Cotton Research Institute. In Uzbekistan's science and technology demonstration zone, the yield of cotton cultivated with Chinese technology is more than twice that of local varieties, while the water consumption is only 1/3 of the local level.

At the sub-forum of international agricultural cooperation, the SCO Agricultural Industry Development Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the "Alliance") was officially established. The alliance aims to gather the consensus and joint efforts of the government, enterprises and other sectors of society, and build a market-oriented, enterprise-oriented and internationally influential commonweal industry development alliance. The establishment of the alliance will be more conducive to China and the five Central Asian countries to give full play to their resource advantages, expand agricultural industrial cooperation, and promote the high-quality development of bilateral and multilateral agricultural industries.

Yuan Ruixian, Director of Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, introduced: "At present, Qingdao has carried out a series of modern agricultural industrial cooperation with the five Central Asian countries - Sino-Kazakhstan Agriculture has built soybean, alfalfa and other crops and animal husbandry bases in Kazakhstan, Qingdao Guanzhong Ecology has built an economic nursery stock base in Uzbekistan, Shandong Port has signed a memorandum of cooperation with Kazakhstan to promote the development of Sino-Kazakhstan cross-border trade, and Qingdao Wanlin Group plans to invest in the construction of food processing and logistics industrial parks in Central Asian countries."

To deepen agricultural cooperation with the five Central Asian countries and promote the high-quality development of agricultural cooperation, the relevant heads of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China put forward three suggestions. First, strengthen dialogue and coordination and jointly create a favorable international environment; Second, strengthen economic and trade cooperation and jointly safeguard the security of the supply chain; Third, strengthen innovation cooperation and promote green and sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas.