Africa: Argentina Extends Its Tech Transfer Ties With Africa

 


Buenos Aires/Nairobi — Argentina has agreed to extend its collaboration on agricultural technology transfer with nine Sub-Saharan African countries in areas of special interest for each.
Nine separate deals were signed during the second meeting of Sub-Saharan and Argentinean Agriculture Ministers in Argentina last month (20-23 August).
Representatives of Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Senegal, Sudan and Zambia signed the agreements.

Argentina's government "had been working with these countries on cooperation and technological transfer as part of its policy to seek new markets for Argentine products", the ministry spokesperson tells SciDev.Net.
The first ministerial meeting took place in April 2011, and, in addition, Argentina has received delegates from Africa seeking collaboration on technology transfer, and has sent its own technical missions to Angola, Namibia and Mozambique, before the current raft of agreements, according to the ministry.
Argentina will now transfer technological knowledge and provide assistance, especially in the areas of rural development, biotechnology, seeding techniques, small-scale agriculture, plant and animal health, and rural extension programmes, whereby new knowledge is applied to agricultural practices through farmer education.

The work will aim to improve crop yields, the efficiency of water and energy use, and the conservation of natural resources, according to a press release from Argentina's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.
"Argentina is positioned as a leading country in science, technology, biotechnology and genetics," Norberto Yauhar, Argentina's minister of agriculture, livestock and fisheries, tells SciDev.Net.
The next steps will be to establish bilateral work programmes to identify priority areas and actions, including research projects and the exchange of technical information, says Yauhar.
"We aim to create a space for approaching the private sector in each country in order to increase bilateral trade flows and the presence of each country's companies in various markets. We also hope to expert exchange missions in order to identify areas where technical assistance is needed to increase agricultural sustainability," he says