China and Ethiopia Plan to Restart Teff Crop Agricultural Mechanization Cooperation Project

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 13, Ethiopia's Ministry of Agriculture announced progress in cooperation talks with Chinese agricultural mechanization research institutions. The two sides discussed resuming the teff crop agricultural mechanization cooperation project launched about ten years ago and agreed to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the agricultural machinery and equipment previously developed, tested, and deployed. Based on the assessment results, the two sides plan to study follow-up financing mechanisms and formulate joint implementation and project expansion plans.

During the talks, Abera Lema, Advisor to the State Minister of Ethiopia's Ministry of Agriculture, presented the country's agricultural mechanization development plan and confirmed that the two sides had jointly launched the teff crop mechanization project about ten years ago. Chinese agricultural mechanization research institutions had previously developed and tested machinery and equipment for teff production, and this discussion will focus on verifying the operational status and technical performance of the existing equipment.

Chinese representative Ma Jingchun proposed conducting a technical assessment of the teff mechanization equipment previously developed and tested, examining the current condition and actual operational performance of the equipment. Both sides agreed to use the comprehensive assessment of the deployed machinery as the basis for subsequent cooperation and to determine possible financing channels and project resumption implementation plans based on the assessment results.

Ethiopia's Ministry of Agriculture has previously revised its agricultural and rural development policy and implemented programs including irrigated wheat production expansion, agricultural input improvement, and agricultural production technology extension. In this round, China and Ethiopia have included the assessment of teff crop mechanization equipment as a matter for further cooperation, with follow-up work including equipment performance investigation, financing mechanism research, and formulation of joint implementation plans.