President Du Zhixiong and others exchanged views with the participants of the "Nigeria Rural Development Strategy Seminar"

On the afternoon of June 18, 2013, Professor Du Zhixiong, the president of the association, met with a group of 25 students from the "Nigeria Rural Development Strategy Seminar" organized by the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and discussed the rural construction between China and Nigeria. Issues such as China-Africa agricultural cooperation, China's agricultural informatization, agricultural mechanization, rural land circulation, rural finance, agricultural product circulation and trade, etc. conducted extensive exchanges.

Hu Glacier, Deputy Secretary-General of the Association, Liao Yongsong, Executive Director, and relevant experts from the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences attended the meeting and exchanges.

Regarding the issue of agricultural informatization raised by the Nigerian side, President Du Zhixiong first introduced the overall framework and implementation steps of China's agricultural informatization, and gave a special explanation on the role of the government in agricultural informatization. Regarding the issue of strengthening China-Africa agricultural cooperation, especially China-Nigeria agricultural cooperation, President Du Zhixiong started from the current practice of China-Africa bilateral agricultural cooperation and combined with the international political and diplomatic pattern, it clarifies that no matter what the situation is, China's assistance to Africa is selfless. The purpose of China-Africa agricultural cooperation and Chinese enterprises' investment in Africa is to help African countries expand agricultural production and enlarge the cake of the world's total supply of agricultural products, which is not only conducive to improving the income and welfare of farmers in these countries, but also to help African countries reduce their national welfare losses under the background of unstable world agricultural market and rising prices of agricultural products, so the prospect of China-Africa agricultural cooperation is broad.

With regard to the operational suggestions put forward by the Nigerian delegation to strengthen bilateral trade in agricultural products between China and Nepal, Executive Director Liao Yongsong, associate researcher, proposed that due to the geographical distance between China and Africa and the characteristics of agricultural products, the focus of Nigeria's agricultural exports to China should be on palm oil and other bulk agricultural products. Regarding the issue of rural land transfer raised by the representative of the country, Deputy Secretary-General Hu Glacier introduced the current agricultural land transfer methods adopted in some parts of China.

In addition, the two sides also conducted relevant exchanges on agricultural mechanization, agricultural socialized services, rural finance and other issues, and the atmosphere of the venue was warm.

Finally, President Du Zhixiong summarized the exchange activities on behalf of Chinese experts, saying that China is always willing to share relevant agricultural experience with Nigeria and other African countries, and wished the Nigerian trainees a complete success in their study and training activities in China.

According to the arrangement, on the afternoon of June 19, President Du will also make a special report for the trainees on the current situation and experience of China's agricultural development.