Across China: Iraqi officials borrow wisdom in China’s smart agriculture

Iraqi Officials Learn from China’s Sustainable Agricultural Development

Introduction

A delegation of 34 officials from Iraq’s 16 departments recently visited China to attend a seminar on climate change and sustainable agricultural development. The seminar, sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China, aimed to provide Iraqi officials with a comprehensive understanding of China’s agricultural development policies, measures, models, and technologies.

Impressed by China’s Smart System Solution

Noor Mahdi Naqee, senior chief physicist of the Ministry of Water Resources of Iraq, expressed excitement during her visit to an agricultural industrial park in Minning Township, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Naqee was particularly impressed by a smart system that intelligently controls the growth and use of water and fertilizers. She noted that Iraq faces similar challenges such as water shortages and desertification and expressed the need for smart irrigation in her country. Naqee also highlighted the valuable lessons she learned from China’s experience in poverty reduction and rural revitalization.

Learning from China’s Sustainable Agricultural Development

The seminar, which concluded in Yinchuan, provided Iraqi officials with the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge of China’s agricultural development through lectures, visits, discussions, and exchanges. The first week in Beijing focused on lectures and discussions, while the second week in Ningxia included field trips to various sites. The officials visited 12 sites, where they learned about China’s saline-alkali treatment, anti-desertification measures, water-saving irrigation techniques, smart agriculture, and poverty alleviation efforts.

Technological Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture

Ahmed Oleiwi Gatea, chief agricultural engineer from Iraq’s Ministry of Agriculture, was impressed by Chinese technicians’ ability to transform saline-alkali land into high-yield fields through technological innovation. Gatea believes that these techniques can be transferred to Iraq and hopes to see more technological practices applied in his country’s agriculture sector. He commended China for its remarkable job in technological innovation.

Conclusion

The seminar on climate change and sustainable agricultural development provided Iraqi officials with valuable insights into China’s successful approaches. The visit emphasized the importance of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and highlighted the need for international cooperation in addressing common challenges such as water shortages and desertification. Iraq looks forward to implementing China’s smart system solutions and technological innovations to enhance its own agricultural sector.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. SDGs addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article:

• SDG 2: Zero Hunger
• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 15: Life on Land
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

2. Specific targets under those SDGs based on the article’s content:

• SDG 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding, and other disasters, and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
• SDG 6.4: By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity.
• SDG 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
• SDG 15.3: By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought, and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.
• SDG 17.6: Enhance North-South, South-South, and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology, and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms, particularly at the United Nations level, and through a global technology facilitation mechanism.

3. Indicators mentioned or implied in the article to measure progress towards the identified targets:

• Indicator for SDG 2.4: Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture.
• Indicator for SDG 6.4: Level of water stress.
• Indicator for SDG 13.1: Number of deaths, missing persons, and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population.
• Indicator for SDG 15.3: Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area.
• Indicator for SDG 17.6: Number of science and/or technology cooperation agreements and partnerships between countries.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Fuente: english.news.cn

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