Enhancing agricultural productivity is one of the most effective ways to alleviate rural poverty. This has been demonstrated by China’s agricultural transformation since the 1980s. Other regions of the world, however, have not realised their agriculture potential, and there is considerable interest among governments, researchers and practitioners in Africa, China and elsewhere in the most effective mechanisms for agricultural technology transfer to low-income countries.

In particular, there has been considerable interest in recent years in the model of trilateral cooperation to improve aid effectiveness. Trilateral cooperation generally refers to a partnership between three categories of development actors: 1) donors (either...

“AgriTT has a key strength: It has brought science experts and businessmen to one single table to address a problem and identify opportunities. Normally, you just have a project going to the farmers and teaching them how to make pancakes, and then they leave. But AgriTT has started with the experts across science and business, then has brought in pilot technologies, which can now be taken to another level, to large-scale production.” Professor, Makerere University Kampala

AgriTT is the first experience of trilateral agricultural aid engagement involving a government-togovernment partnership among the UK, China and African countries. As such, the...

“It seems straightforward, but in practice there are lots of challenges.” Reflections on AgriTT by the feed specialist TA from Guangxi Academy of Fishery Sciences

AgriTT has achieved meaningful and innovative impacts in a relatively short period of time. However, the programme has also run into challenges in implementation, particularly in the pilots. This section outlines some of the main challenges, and describes how they were addressed.

Proponents of trilateral cooperation argue that these forms of partnerships can bring together the best of different actors to share knowledge and implement projects in support of common goals. While the magic of...

This report has explored achievements and lessons for trilateral cooperation in agriculture technology transfer from AgriTT’s experience.

The key objective of AgriTT was to promote the uptake of improved Chinese technologies in agriculture. In this, there have been clear achievements:

In Uganda, Chinese TAs provided technical input on a range of cassava agronomy best-practice; mechanised planting was demonstrated across multiple districts, improving yields three-fold; Chinese chippers and processers were distributed to farmer groups and a co-investor was also identified for cassava processing equipment, backed by a business case; nurseries were set up to sustainably supply improved cassava; and cassava food...