BRICS, which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, includes big producers and consumers of agricultural products, and it plays an important role in the global food system.

With the expansion of economic and trade exchanges between these five emerging economies and other multilateral mechanisms, BRICS countries can establish their own food trade mechanism, said Tang Xiaoyang, director of the international relations department at Tsinghua University.

Tang pointed out that such a mechanism would promote the prosperity and development of agriculture among the BRICS countries and provide a high-quality food range for their people.

Chinese-invested high-tech park in Brazil

It is still harvest season in Mato Grosso, Brazil, but farmer Eleonor Ogliari is already preserving corn seeds from an industrial park for the next planting season.

Mato Grosso is the largest corn-producing state in Brazil, with an annual output of about 40 million tonnes, a large portion of which is exported.

Since 2019, Ogliari has been planting corn varieties provided by Longping High-Tech Brazil, a Chinese-invested company owned by Longping Agriculture Science Co., Ltd. The planting area has expanded massively during this time, now covering some 50,000 mu (about 3,330 hectares).

The industrial park where the seeds are stored was established in 2019 by Longping with the aim of integrating emerging markets globally, with a strong emphasis on BRICS countries.

The park is expected to promote the integration of precision agriculture, field monitoring and mapping and other advanced agricultural technologies, creating new development opportunities for agricultural trade and investment and radiating them out to developing countries.

"After purchasing corn seeds, the park will track the whole production process and the planting situation, and provide planting guidance and follow-up maintenance services, which is very intimate," Ogliari said.

With the corn varieties from Longping, the yield per mu exceeded 640 kilograms (per hectare exceeded about 43 kilograms) in 2021, bringing about 50 million yuan (about $7.4 million) in income, the farmer added.

Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business, said, "I highlighted agricultural cooperation as one of the essential measures among the various discussion topics at the BRICS meeting. The success of these measures may result in achieving food self-sufficiency and balancing trade between countries."

Sino-Russian agricultural bonds

Hunan Province, an important agricultural base in central China, established an international commerce platform in October 2019 to promote produce sales to Russia.

Lei Shaoxiang, chairman of the platform's operating company, said that based on deep cooperation with large Russian supermarket chains, the platform has established a cross-border e-commerce trading platform, built several standardized overseas warehouses, and organized its own logistics fleet.

As of the beginning of 2022, the export value of agricultural products of the platform's partner enterprises had exceeded $30 million.

China's proposals for better global food security

Agriculture ministers of the BRICS countries held a virtual meeting earlier in June under the theme of "Deepening BRICS Cooperation for Coordinated Agricultural and Rural Areas Development."  

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China put forward proposals to address the severe challenges of global food security at the meeting. 

China suggested that BRICS countries focus on food security and poverty reduction, strengthen technical exchanges and deepen cooperation in agricultural production and technological innovation to improve global food security.

In addition, China also urged the BRICS countries to firmly uphold the WTO rules-based multilateral trading system, enhance coordination in agricultural trade policies, explore ways to build a long-term and stable supply-demand synergy mechanism within BRICS countries, facilitate the smooth circulation of agricultural products, agricultural inputs and other commodities, and provide BRICS momentum for economic recovery amid the pandemic.

It said BRICS countries should expand partnerships, tap cooperation potential, strengthen multilateral and bilateral agricultural cooperation with other developing countries and relevant international organizations under the BRICS mechanism, and provide BRICS solutions for global food and agriculture governance.

(With input from Xinhua)

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China calls on BRICS countries to cooperate to stabilize food security