China-Africa cooperation charts course for continental agricultural modernization
Chinese agricultural expert Hu Yuefang (1st R) inspects the growth of hybrid rice with local farmers in Mahitsy, Madagascar on March 25, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
Under the frameworks of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative, China-Africa agricultural cooperation has yielded fruitful results in recent years.
Through technology transfer, infrastructure development, equipment upgrade and industrial chain expansion, China has substantially boosted Africa’s agricultural productivity and sustainable development capacities, injecting strong momentum into the continent’s modernization drive.
Moving forward, China is committed to fully implementing its plan to support Africa’s agricultural modernization, notably by tackling development bottlenecks and fostering innovative cooperation, so as to extend the benefits of modernization and usher in a new era of China-Africa agricultural partnership.
This photo taken on March 26, 2025 shows a hybrid rice demonstration center launched by China in Mahitsy, Madagascar. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
As the rainy season waned in late March in Madagascar, lush paddies blanketed the landscape of Mahitsy, a town about 35 km northwest of the capital, Antananarivo. At the China Hybrid Rice High-Yield Demonstration Base, Chinese agricultural expert Hu Yuefang walked through the fields, pausing to examine rice stalks alongside local farmers.
Rice is Madagascar’s primary staple, occupying roughly half of the country’s cultivated agricultural land. Yet for years, low-quality seeds and outdated farming methods have hindered productivity, leaving domestic demand unmet.
To help Madagascar achieve food self-sufficiency, China launched a hybrid rice demonstration center project in the country in 2007, aiming to promote high-quality hybrid rice varieties, transfer advanced farming techniques, and boost crop yields.
After years of dedicated efforts, Chinese experts have successfully developed five hybrid rice varieties tailored to local conditions, achieving average yields of 7.5 tonnes per hectare — two to three times that of local varieties. These high-yield strains have been cultivated across a cumulative area of about 90,000 hectares nationwide, making Madagascar the largest grower of hybrid rice in Africa.
Femosoa Rakatondrazala, a farmer from Mahitsy, switched to planting hybrid rice three years ago. He said the crop has transformed his family’s life: “Hybrid rice brought us new hope. We used to struggle to feed ourselves, but now we have a surplus to sell and even save up to buy more land.”
Michel Anondraka, director general of agriculture and livestock at Madagascar’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, praised China’s contribution to the country’s agricultural progress. “Hybrid rice is a high-yield variety, and increasing its production will ensure Madagascar’s rice self-sufficiency,” he said.
Michel Anondraka, director general of agriculture and livestock at Madagascar’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Analamanga, Madagascar on March 27, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
Today, Chinese hybrid rice has been introduced to over 20 African countries. As China-Africa agricultural cooperation deepens, a growing number of Chinese-aided projects have taken root across the continent, bolstering food security and nudging African agriculture toward modernization.
In Tanzania’s Morogoro Region, China Agricultural University launched the “Small Technology, Big Harvest” project in 2011, promoting China’s maize-intensive planting technique. Starting with a single household in one village, the project now spans more than 10 villages and over 1,000 households, with maize yields doubling on average.
In Rwanda, China’s Juncao technology has enabled 4,000-plus households to shift to mushroom farming, creating over 30,000 jobs. The technology has now been introduced to over 100 countries, with 17 demonstration bases established globally.
Under the first three-year action plan of the China-Africa Cooperation Vision 2035, China has dispatched over 500 agricultural experts and trained nearly 9,000 professionals. By 2023, China had built 24 agricultural technology demonstration centers in Africa, promoting over 300 advanced technologies. These efforts have increased crop yields by an average of 30-60 percent, benefiting over 1 million smallholder farmers.
CHINESE SOLUTIONS
On the undulating plains of Siaya County in western Kenya, newly built irrigation canals stretch across the fields. Along one channel, farmer Peter Onyango directed river water into freshly dug furrows in readiness for vegetable planting.
The canals are part of the Lower Nzoia Irrigation Development Project, the largest of its kind in Kenya. Constructed by China’s Sino Hydro Company Limited, the project’s main structures were completed and operational in April 2024, bringing water to parched farmland along the project line.
This photo taken on Feb. 20, 2025 shows the water intake structure of the Lower Nzoia Irrigation Development Project in Siaya County, Kenya. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy, employing roughly 70 percent of the population. Yet only about 4 percent of the country’s arable land is irrigated, leaving farmers heavily dependent on unpredictable rainfall. The project, including 111-km irrigation canals, 71-km drainage canals, and 736-km field canals, plays a vital role in addressing this challenge and enhancing agricultural productivity.
According to Kenya’s National Irrigation Authority, the project’s first phase, set for completion in May 2025, will irrigate more than 4,000 hectares on Nzoia River’s left bank, benefiting 12,600 farmers. A second phase will extend irrigation to another 4,000-plus hectares on the right bank.
During a site visit in January, Kenyan President William Ruto said the project would help expand irrigated farmland, urging farmers to make full use of the infrastructure to boost food production and support the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
Edward Mare Muya, a Kenyan irrigation agronomist, said the Chinese enterprise applied modern technology, innovative approaches and scientific management throughout the infrastructure, which serves as a model to accelerate Kenya — and Africa at large — from rain-fed farming to sustainable irrigation-based agriculture.
In South Africa, China’s intelligent devices are transforming modern farming. At Fountainhill Estate in KwaZulu-Natal Province, sugarcane fields swayed gently in the breeze as a drone from Chinese tech firm XAG hovered just three meters above the crops, precisely spraying fungicides.
Covering 2,250 hectares, the farm had long struggled with Eldana moth infestations, with traditional manual pesticide application proving inefficient and wasteful. “The Chinese drones have completely changed the whole farming practices,” said farm manager Deon Burger.
A drone from Chinese tech firm XAG sprays fungicides above sugarcane fields in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa on March 25, 2025. (Xinhua/Bai Ge)
The key advantage of drone operations lies in their efficiency. Agricultural service contractor Johan Prinsloo explained that manually spraying pesticides over 40 hectares of sugarcane requires 30 to 40 workers working an entire day, whereas with a drone, a team of just three people can complete the task.
Drones also offer greater precision. Drone pilot Lucius Du Plessis said, “With 3D terrain mapping and real-time adjustments, we can spray with pinpoint accuracy, reducing pesticide waste and minimizing environmental impact.” “The Chinese drone technology is taking us toward more precise farming,” Prinsloo added.
Since entering the South African market in 2020, XAG drones have serviced over 66,000 hectares of farmland. Today, these smart devices have spread far beyond South Africa’s sugarcane fields to a broader African landscape — soaring over rice paddies in Mozambique, wheat fields in Ethiopia, and vegetable gardens in Ghana. Chinese drones are becoming a vivid symbol of Africa’s journey toward agricultural modernization.
INDUSTRIAL CHAIN EXTENSION
In Kenya’s Murang’a County, macadamia orchards yielded a bountiful harvest in April. As morning mist clung to the trees, farmers stepped into fields to gather the season’s bounty. In the distance, trucks from Hongokee — the Kenyan arm of China’s Hunan Jianglai Food Co., Ltd. — rumbled toward the processing plant, laden with freshly harvested nuts.
As a major global production area, Kenya’s macadamia nuts enjoy a strong reputation on the international market, with prices steadily rising in recent years. Yet, most local factories remain confined to basic processing such as shelling, lacking advanced capabilities like grading, flavoring and packaging. As a result, the product fetches low returns, and with frequent export policy fluctuations, both farmers and enterprises have long struggled with constrained profits.
A farmer displays macadamia nuts at an orchard in Murang’a County, Kenya, on April 5, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
Recognizing the potential of Kenya’s high-quality raw materials, Jianglai invested nearly 30 million yuan (4 million U.S. dollars) in 2023 to establish a macadamia processing plant in the capital of Nairobi, equipped with advanced Chinese machinery and technology for shelling and other deep processing activities.
Wu Huazhong, Hongokee’s purchasing manager, said the plant has commenced trial production and is expected to become fully operational in the second half of this year. Within five years, it aims to achieve an annual processing capacity of 6,000 tonnes and generate around 200 jobs.
Strong demand from the Chinese market has directly driven the expansion of Kenya’s macadamia plantations. Jane Mburu, who grows 400 macadamia trees in Murang’a, had a bumper harvest last year. “The Chinese company offers twice the local purchase price,” she said. “Their stringent quality standards have also helped us improve planting techniques.”
John Mwangi, a local procurement personnel at Hongokee, said, “By investing in local production, we not only meet China’s demand for premium nuts but also help local processors upgrade their equipment and technology, promoting a shift toward more advanced and value-added production.”
In the semi-arid southwest region of Madagascar, goat farming accounts for over 80 percent of the country’s total. However, limited domestic demand and a weak industrial base have long confined local goat farming to small-scale household operations, making it difficult to achieve large-scale development and improved profitability.
To drive industry upgrading, in September 2023, Chinese firm Sino-Malagasy Animal Husbandry (Madagascar) established the country’s first dedicated goat meat processing plant in line with Chinese standards. With a designed annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes, the plant is expected to reach full production within three years.
Staff members guide a herd of goats to the weighing area in Analamanga, Madagascar, on March 27, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
During the third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in 2023, China and Madagascar signed an agreement on goat meat exports. In September 2024, the firm obtained export certification and successfully delivered its first shipment of 900 kg of frozen goat meat to China’s Hunan Province, marking China’s first-ever import of mutton products from Africa.
The company has now built a complete industrial chain that spans tropical forage cultivation, livestock rearing, meat processing and exports, according to Zhang Ting, executive president of the firm.
“This plant will advance Madagascar’s livestock sector and extend the value chain,” said Anandraka. “We will seize the opportunity presented by the Chinese market to accelerate livestock sector modernization and usher in a new chapter in China-Africa agricultural cooperation.”
