At least 3,000 Chinese specialists will be sent to developing countries to help improve food security.

The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday confirmed that the specialists will be sent as part of a strategic partnership set out in an agreement signed by China and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations at the FAO's Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, in Jakarta on Thursday.

"Chinese science and agriculture have much to offer, as intensive agriculture has been practiced on very small plots of land in China for centuries," said Tesfai Tecle, FAO assistant director-general for technical co-operation.

He said China had repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to helping other countries improve their food security and made a major contribution towards the World Food Summit and Millennium Development goals of halving hunger by 2015.

Over the coming six years Chinese experts and technicians, with expertise in irrigation, agronomy, livestock, fisheries, post-harvest handling and other fields, will be deployed for three-year assignments in countries selected by the FAO.

In addition to personnel, China will also provide tools and equipment for the technologies being introduced by its experts.

Liao Chongguang, an officer in the FAO's Beijing office, said the China-FAO collaboration was part of the South-South Co-operation initiative under the FAO's Special Programme for Food Security.

The programme is designed to improve lives in some of the world's poorest countries by rapidly increasing food production, improving access to food and reducing their vulnerability to disastrous climates.

Since the programme was launched in 1995, China has become the major provider of South-South Co-operation experts, said Liang.

The country has already sent more than 700 experts and technicians to a score of countries, mostly in Africa, according to Zhao Lijun of the Ministry of Agriculture.

(China Daily May 22, 2006)