Hainan hosts workshop on Global South farming

More than 40 government officials, agricultural experts and development partners gathered in Hainan province on Monday for a United Nations-backed workshop on tropical agriculture, highlighting China's growing role in sharing agricultural technologies and expertise to support sustainable farming across the Global South.

The six-day workshop, organized under the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's One Country One Priority Product initiative and co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, focuses on sustainable production, post-harvest management, value addition and market access for tropical specialty crops. Participants are also visiting research facilities in Hainan to explore practical applications of agricultural technologies.

Launched by the FAO in 2021, the OCOP initiative encourages countries to develop one priority agricultural product with comparative advantages while strengthening sustainable value chains through technology sharing and international cooperation. The initiative now includes 94 participating countries, 60 of them tropical nations.

"OCOP is not simply about promoting a product," said Yurdi Yasmi, director of FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division. "It is about helping countries transform local potential into sustainable development outcomes. It connects innovation with farmers, knowledge with action, and partnerships with impact."

For many delegates, the discussions centered on practical technologies that could help address production bottlenecks back home.

Egypt, which produces more than 2 million metric tons of dates annually across 60 varieties, is looking to adopt AI-powered optical sorting equipment and advanced packaging technologies to improve quality and competitiveness, said Amgad Ahmed Mohamed Elkady, executive general manager of the Food and Agro Industries Technology Center under Egypt's Technology and Industrial Innovation Centers.

Cambodia, meanwhile, hopes to strengthen cooperation on pest management and production standards to expand overseas markets for its mango industry.

"We have to boost smallholder development and explore new overseas markets — that's a major challenge," said Hun Darin, fruit crop expert officer, general directorate of Agronomy, Cambodia. "We are seeking collaboration via OCOP and China's South-South programs to carry out joint pest prevention and train local farmers."

The workshop also showcases China's broader approach to agricultural cooperation, which increasingly emphasizes technology transfer and long-term capacity building.

Through the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme, China has shared expertise drawn from its own agricultural transformation — from subsistence farming to technology-driven, market-oriented production — to help partner countries strengthen their agricultural systems.

The approach has already delivered tangible results.

Under previous FAO South-South projects, Chinese mango, banana and pineapple technologies boosted fruit yields by 50 to 300 percent in Sri Lanka, while training over 2,200 farmers. In the Republic of the Congo, high-yield cassava varieties and processing lines tripled output. In the Maldives, green biocontrol techniques helped save coconut forests from devastating pests, according to You Wen, deputy director of CATAS' international cooperation division.

"Hainan is ready to share its tropical agricultural practices as a model case for South-South cooperation," said Lu Sheng, deputy director-general of the province's agriculture department. "We are working with global partners to explore new pathways for green development of specialty products."

Alue Dohong, FAO assistant director-general and regional representative for Asia and the Pacific, praised the collaboration with leading regional science partners as instrumental to OCOP's success.

The workshop, which runs through Saturday, is expected to identify new areas for technical cooperation and future partnerships among participating countries, further expanding collaboration on sustainable tropical agriculture across the Global South.