China continues to play a critical role in economic development in the 21st century across the African continent.

The vital role that Asia’s fastest growing economy can play extends to agriculture too, as Self Help Africa’s Kenya director David Otieno

learned when he attended a recent Africa agricultural conference, hosted in Beijing.

The sole representative of the non-governmental sector who was invited to attend the event, Mr. Otieno’s visit to China followed a series of field visits by

Chinese Embassy representatives to development projects being undertaken by Self Help Africa in Kenya’s Rift Valley.

The Beijing conference, on the subject ‘Agricultural Technology Extension for African Countries’, and was also attended by agricultural ministry officials from Egypt, Tanzania, North and South Sudan, and Kenya.

The trip included field visits to Chinese farms, a visit to China’s Pest and Disease Control Centre in Sondu Province.