Recently, perennial rice was included in the agricultural technology promotion framework at the High-Level Ministerial Session of the Fifth African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (ARDWE), and was listed in the “AU Seeds and Biotechnology Program 2024-2025”. African mainstream media, including ENA, EBC, FANA and CAPITAL, intensively reported and highly commented on perennial rice technology and its potential contribution to the agricultural modernization and food security in Africa. The main content are as follow:
Perennial rice is the most representative breakthrough in the innovative utilization of agricultural germplasm resources in China. As a major food country, China has always been committed to sharing its agricultural development experience and practical technologies with African countries. With the continuous advancement of China-Africa joint construction of Belt and Road Initiative, perennial rice is accelerating its take-roots on the African continent.
After intensive research for more than 20 years, Chinese research teams have developed an original perennial rice species. The emergence of perennial rice varieties has transformed rice from annual to perennial, making it possible to plant once and harvest for multiple years continuously.
Compared with annual rice, perennial rice can reduce production cost input by more than 30%. More importantly, perennial rice not only enables a simplified farming approach but also delivers comparable yields to conventional rice varieties, which ensures its vast prospects for widespread adoption. In 2018 perennial rice was successfully selected as one of the FAO’s International Agricultural Technology Innovations.
In collaboration with local partners in Uganda, Madagascar, Burundi, and Malawi, Chinese enterprises have actively engaged in extensive trial planting of perennial rice and started market based promotion at the same time.
By taking opportunity of being included under AU agricultural technology promotion framework, Media commented, based on perennial rice trial planting, high-yield demonstration planting and promotion will be carried out on a large scale to continuously contribute “China’s scientific and technological strength” to the agricultural modernization and food security in Africa.
