On the eve of the 2026 Year of the Horse Spring Festival, Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, held a forum with foreign expert representatives at the Great Hall of the People. Dr. Jimmy Lamo, Distinguished Professor of Yunnan University, Special Advisor for Africa of BGI All Things, and Senior Breeding Expert & Chief Researcher of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) of Uganda, delivered a speech as a representative in the agricultural sector. He highlighted the innovative application and promotion outcomes of perennial rice technology in Africa, jointly developed and advanced by Yunnan University and BGI.
One message stood out clearly in Dr. Jimmy Lamo’s speech: Chinese‑originated agricultural innovations are delivering practical solutions for global food security, with BGI serving as a key partner to bring this technology from laboratories to African farmlands.
This home‑grown Chinese agricultural innovation has long won wide international recognition. In 2022, perennial rice was listed as a leading agricultural variety by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and promoted worldwide by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), emerging as a landmark achievement of China’s agricultural science and technology aid to Africa. In 2023, the technology was included in the List of Pragmatic Cooperation Projects of the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. In 2025, it was added to the List of Outcomes Implementation of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China‑Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), marking a signature achievement of China‑Africa agricultural cooperation.
Across Mountains and Seas: Footprints of Perennial Rice Demonstration & Promotion
Dr. Jimmy Lamo’s story marks the starting point of perennial rice’s introduction to Africa. First exposed to the technology in 2018, he launched years‑long localized promotion. Its accelerated rollout across Africa also owes to collaborative efforts from institutions including BGI and Yunnan University.
Today, this Chinese agricultural innovation has been piloted and promoted in over 130 regions across 10 countries worldwide, bringing tangible green hope.
A New Path to Food Security: An Efficiency Revolution from Input to Output
As the world’s first commercially viable perennial grain crop, perennial rice enables one‑time planting for multiple harvests.
Leveraging the regenerative capacity of rhizome axillary buds, it eliminates seed purchasing, seedling raising, ploughing, harrowing and rice transplanting from the second growing season onward, requiring only field management and harvesting. This drastically eases farmers’ labor burden, freeing their limited workforce from repetitive farming for more diversified production and business activities.
Meanwhile, perennial rice delivers remarkable ecological benefits. Reduced tillage preserves soil structure, curbs soil erosion, and steers agriculture toward greener, more sustainable development. This simplified, high‑efficiency rice farming model caters to farmers’ production needs and aligns with global agricultural transformation trends.
As Yin Ye, CEO of BGI Group, noted: “Chinese agricultural technologies are redefining how humans interact with land.”
Beyond Rice: Sustained Cultivation of China‑Africa Agricultural Cooperation
Dr. Jimmy Lamo’s speech at the Great Hall of the People is more than an achievement report—it is a testament: an original Chinese agricultural technology is writing stories of food and hope across the African continent thousands of miles away. It brings the vision of “food for all” closer to reality, and bears heavy rice panicles as the fruit of friendship in China‑Africa agricultural cooperation.
