Drought within an ocean

Cape Verde

ROME, 27 May 2024 / PRN Africa / -- “Our soil is weak; the water is salty,” says Willy Gonçalves, a farmer who attended a soil management and pest control training offered as part of an FAO-China South-South Cooperation project. “Sometimes we blame the seeds, the plants. It was in this training that I learnt how to deal with the soil.”

Willy Gonçalves clicks his tongue to get the goats to run a little faster up the tall dirt hill in front of his farm. The goats are in search of grass to eat.

Despite its name, Cabo Verde isn’t so green at this time of year. The brutal dry season turns the island of Santiago into even shades of light brown. It will only get hotter, and there are still three months until July when the rainy season arrives… if it arrives.

Through FAO, Cabo Verde requested assistance in fighting growing challenges related to food and feed production and that is exactly what China could offer, having lived through many of these difficulties itself.

The South-South Cooperation projects matches the technologies and experience of visiting countries with the needs and requests of host countries, transferring knowledge and expertise through partnership. China is passing on to Cabo Verde what it has learned in its own rural landscapes, in some ways, remarkably similar to that of this small island’s interior.

SOURCE Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)