Chinese Government provides RMB 55 million grant for the China-Mozambique Agro-Technology Demonstration Center Construction Project

Project narrative

In 2007, the Chinese Government and the Government of Mozambique signed an RMB 55 million grant agreement for the Agro-Technology Demonstration Center Construction Project. This project involved the construction of a new agro-technology demonstration center called Centro de Investigação e Transferência de Tecnologias Agrárias do Umbeluzi (CITTAU) in the district of Boane, which is 23 km southeast of Maputo. Ten Chinese agricultural technicians oversaw the establishment of the center and agro-technology transfer activities were focused in two main areas: crop farming (e.g. rice, maize, vegetables) and animal husbandry (e.g. pig farming). Lianfeng Overseas Agricultural Development Company — a provincial-level state farming company affiliated with the Bureau of State Farms and Land Reclamation (BSFLR) under the Hubei Provincial Government of China — was the main contractor responsible for project implementation. A project inauguration ceremony was held on February 9, 2007 and a groundbreaking ceremony took place on October 19, 2008. The project was completed in September 2010 and then officially handed over to the authorities in Mozambique on July 8, 2011. In April 2012, the center entered the technical cooperation phase.