"I came with an empty bag, but I'm going back with a full bag of information, full bag of knowledge." said Willis Abwao Adero, senior research scientist at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation. "We learned a lot, not only on rice, (also) perennial rice production, that with the whole management." said Allo Amen Dido, senior researcher and plant biotechnology directorate director from Bio and Emerging Technology Institute (BETin) in Ethiopia.

These two representatives are among 30 agricultural officials and experts from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Gambia and Cameroon, who have participated in the 2025 Seminar on Perennial Rice Technology in China from May 15 to May 28.

Hosted by China's Ministry of Commerce and partially organized by BGI Group, China's leading life science and genomics company, the two-week program covered sustainable rice cultivation, including perennial rice – a crop yielding multiple harvests from one planting.

The initiative aligns with China-Africa cooperation under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC, promoting agricultural modernization. As a life science enterprise, the BGI group says it will strengthen partnerships and share sustainable farming practices with Africa.