Burundi has benefited significantly from China's agricultural assistance, with Chinese experts sent to the east-central African country to teach modern farming techniques since 2009 as an effort to enhance local food production.
Burundi faced a rice cultivation challenge though it boasts favorable conditions for rice production. It had been suffering from a low yield, with key bottlenecks, such as a shortage of new rice varieties and planting expertise.
To solve the problem, China has sent six batches of experts since 2009 to cultivate new rice varieties in Burundi, hoping to bring new prospects to China-Africa cooperation in agriculture and poverty alleviation.
Chinese expert in rice farming Yang Huade has been working in Burundi since 2015, leading a team of Chinese agricultural experts to introduce rice seed varieties suitable to the local environment.
"We started by introducing Chinese hybrid rice varieties, which led to a significant increase in rice yield here. Seeing the bumper harvest here is the happiest thing for us. So far we have trained a large number of farmers, so that they will serve as local technical experts after we leave," said Yang.
Yang said the hybrid rice yield in recent years ranged between 9 and 10 tonnes per hectare, more than triple that of 2015 when he arrived in Burundi.
"In the next step, the agricultural expert teams will continue to implement the consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries, and rely on the agricultural demonstration centers to promote the Poverty Reduction Demonstration Village Project. We hope that through the joint efforts of both sides, we could help solve the problem of food security in Burundi. We also hope to further strengthen cooperation with African countries in various fields to open a new chapter in the building of a high-quality China-Africa community with a shared future," said Chinese Ambassador to Burundi Zhao Jiangping.
China's hybrid rice has helped increase the rice yields in many African countries from an average of 2 tonnes to 7.5 tonnes per hectare. Chinese experts are setting up demonstration villages of rice cultivation for poverty alleviation to help realize the dream that "every mouth has food and every pocket money."
Meanwhile, China has shared Juncao technology with over 100 countries by opening training classes and conducting on-site demonstrations since the 1990s. Juncao technology has taken root in more than 40 African countries, helping African farmers combat poverty and promoting cooperation between China and Africa.
Juncao is a hybrid grass and an important multifunctional agricultural resource developed and used for mushroom farming in China.
"The Juncao project has changed our life. Thanks to Juncao, all of our villagers have enough to eat," said a resident of the Central Africa Republic.
The poverty reduction and agricultural development program is one of the nine programs that China has launched jointly with African countries. Under the program, China has set up and implemented 47 poverty reduction and agricultural projects, and trained nearly 9,000 agricultural personnel in Africa.
Burundi benefits from China's agricultural assistance
