Chinese farming model benefits Global South

Tailored training

The overseas expansion of the STB model is being tailored to the specific needs of countries across the Global South as part of efforts to reduce poverty, said Zhang Fusuo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and initiator of the STB.

Since 2019, China Agricultural University has expanded the model overseas, establishing 14 Science and Technology Backyards in 10 countries, including Malawi and Kenya. The backyards have worked with farmers in more than a dozen villages, contributing to efforts to improve food security, raise agricultural productivity and increase rural incomes.

Zhang said the global expansion seeks to move beyond simply sharing agricultural technologies toward building long-term local capacity through education, research and direct engagement with farmers.

China's experience in poverty alleviation and rural vitalization can provide valuable lessons for countries in the Global South, and the model is adapting to different agricultural conditions, Zhang said.

"Our core strategy for the next decade is to take the Science and Technology Backyards overseas," he said.

In many African countries, where food security remains a pressing concern, STBs focus on staple crops such as maize, wheat and rice, seeking to raise yields through relatively simple technologies, including improved varieties, optimized planting density and better water and fertilizer management.

For Samson Mofolo, a Malawian agricultural expert and doctoral student at China Agricultural University, the need for such an approach is rooted in his experience growing up in Malawi.

In Malawi, maize is both a major crop and the foundation of daily diets and rural livelihoods. But smallholder farmers face challenges including low soil fertility, expensive inputs, pests, and limited access to agricultural technology and extension services.

It was the gap between agricultural science and the realities of smallholder fields that brought Mofolo into the STB program.

Mofolo came to China in 2021 to pursue a master's degree under the guidance of professor Jiao Xiaoqiang, head of the China-Africa STB program. After graduating in 2024, he continued his research as a doctoral student. He is now back in Malawi, working with smallholder farmers to improve yields and adapt agricultural technologies he learned in China to local conditions.

Working with three STBs in Malawi, Mofolo is helping farmers experiment with techniques including cereal-legume intercropping, improved varieties and more targeted fertilizer use. Rather than simply copy Chinese farming practices, he hopes to determine what best practices can be adapted to Malawi's soil, climate, farming systems and economic realities.

"We are trying to build a Malawian perspective model, not necessarily exactly the way Chinese people are doing it, but cultivating it in a Malawian way that can fit local conditions," Mofolo said.

In Kasungu, central Malawi, the approach is already changing the experience of farmers such as Esnart Mwera.

Before joining the program, Mwera said her family struggled to produce enough maize from its small plot. After working with Mofolo and the STB team, farmers learned to adjust ridge spacing and planting practices, among other techniques.

"On a small piece of land, we produced more," she said.

Her family now has more food to eat and can sell part of its harvest to improve its livelihood.

"We don't have hunger in our family," she said. "We use our improved harvest to pay for children's school fees, buying some goats, chickens, so our life has really changed."

The experience shows why food security is closely linked to poverty reduction in rural Africa, said Blessings Susuwele, chief agricultural extension methodologist officer at Malawi's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development.

"The majority of the people that live in the rural areas derive their livelihood from farming," Susuwele said. "So if they are not food secure, it means their poverty levels are likely to increase."

The STB is a good model, particularly for capacity building, because it can identify gaps in production and food security in rural communities and work directly to address them, Susuwele said.