Chinese farming model benefits Global South

Education first

The experience in Malawi illustrates the STB model's emphasis on education and long-term capacity building rather than one-way technology transfer.

In July, when fall armyworm threatened maize in Malawi, Mofolo contacted Jiao through WeChat. The pest is one of the most serious threats faced by maize farmers, and Jiao advised him to consider local and mechanical control methods while stressing the importance of timing.

"He has been helpful in quite a number of activities," Mofolo said.

Thousands of kilometers away back in Quzhou county, Jiao stood among rows of corn with African students on a hot summer morning, examining plants and demonstrating the use of a hand-push corn planter suited to ridge spacing commonly used in African farming.

Instead of sitting in a lecture hall or laboratory, the students learn with their hands in the soil, observing plants in experimental fields and discussing how the techniques they were studying might be applied back home.

"Unlike traditional agricultural aid projects, we aim to transfer technology and share China's agricultural experience with countries in the Global South," Jiao said. "The key difference is that the STB model puts capacity building for young people at the center."

Jiao began this work in 2010, when he was a young professor at China Agricultural University. He believed that one of the most effective ways to support agricultural development in the Global South was to train people who could take knowledge home and continue the work themselves.

"Technology is very important for smallholder farmers, but technology alone is not enough. If we want farmers to adopt new technologies, education must come first," he said.

That principle underpins the STB program's "1+1+1" training model.

In the first year, students are based in China for practical learning, studying agricultural science while working with professors, fellow students and Chinese farmers. They return to their home countries in the second year to apply what they have learned and tackle local agricultural problems. In the third year, they return to China to complete their master's or doctoral research and receive their degrees.

"During this process, the students benefit, technologies are transferred, farmers become empowered, agricultural production improves, and farmers increase their incomes," Jiao said.

For students participating in the program, the training provides a firsthand look at how agricultural technologies can be adapted to their own countries.

When Jiao demonstrated agricultural equipment in the cornfields, Ethiopian student Mulu Gadissa Gulti was struck by the range of technologies used in Chinese agriculture, from improved seed varieties to mechanization and drones.

Before joining the STB program, she worked for a pesticide company in Ethiopia, where she saw farmers struggle with the safe and effective use of agricultural chemicals.

"Many farmers there do not know how to apply pesticides properly or use protective equipment," she said. "They often mix fertilizers and pesticides without proper safety guidance."

High-quality seeds and inputs can also be difficult and expensive to obtain, while much farm work is still done manually. In Quzhou, she saw harvesting machinery complete work in roughly 10 minutes that might take farmers two or three days to do manually back home.

"That level of efficiency impressed me," she said, adding that she hopes to improve farming technology and promote safer agricultural practices when she returns to Ethiopia.

With a background in agricultural economics, Kenyan student Sam Simiyu joined the STB program to strengthen his understanding of agricultural production.

Kenya, like many African countries, faces constraints in agricultural resources and inputs. One challenge faced by farmers in Kenya, he said, is the belief that increasing yields simply requires the application of more chemical fertilizer.

"This program teaches us how to maximize the use of available resources to achieve the greatest benefit," he said.

He is studying integrated soil management, including compost and organic manure. In China, he has seen agricultural by-products from poultry and other farming activities recycled into organic fertilizer rather than being discarded.

That is the knowledge and skills Simiyu plans to apply when he returns to Kenya to help farmers improve productivity and incomes.

After graduation, Simiyu said he hopes to work with farmers in Kenya and eventually across Africa.

"I also hope to collaborate with Chinese manufacturers, especially those producing soil-testing equipment and other agricultural technologies, and help introduce those products to Africa," he said.