Guinea seeks to accelerate rice self-sufficiency through China-Brazil cooperation – Milling Middle East & Africa Magazine

GUINEA – Guinea is strengthening international cooperation with China and Brazil as it seeks to accelerate domestic rice production and move closer to self-sufficiency in the country’s most important staple food.

The Guinean Ministry of Agriculture announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazil’s Daniel Franco Institute.

The strategy combines Chinese expertise in high-yield hybrid rice with Brazilian agricultural technology and investment, reflecting Conakry’s wider push to modernize farming, improve productivity and reduce reliance on imported rice.

The partnership is particularly significant because Guinea has substantial agricultural potential, including fertile land and considerable water resources, yet has historically depended on imported rice to meet domestic demand.

Expanding the use of productive rice varieties and improving farming practices could therefore help the country narrow its supply gap while increasing rural household incomes.

China and Brazil expertise to improve rice productivity

The appeal of these two partnerships stems from China’s and Brazil’s respective profiles in rice cultivation, as well as their productivity levels.

In mid-August, Guinea announced a hybrid-rice trial in Koba, Boké region, involving Chinese company YILONGHE Plantation and Développement Agricole Guinée SARL.

Since the China-Guinea pilot hybrid rice project began in 2019, Chinese agricultural experts have worked with Guinean farmers to introduce high-yielding varieties and improved cultivation techniques, including seedling preparation, transplanting and fertilizer management.

The project includes a demonstration phase on 1,000 hectares, 500 of which have already been allocated to the Chinese partners, as well as the transfer of hybrid seed production techniques to Guinean farmers.

China’s contribution extends beyond seed supply. The cooperation model emphasizes technology transfer and farmer training, enabling local producers to adopt improved production systems and build the technical capacity required for higher and more stable yields.

The experience gained through demonstration projects could also support wider dissemination of improved rice technologies across Guinea’s major producing areas.

With an annual production of approximately 143 million tons of milled rice, China ranks among the world’s top two producers, after India, according to FAO data.

The country also has extensive experience with hybrid rice, a technology developed on a large scale within its borders since the 1970s.

According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), hybrid varieties can offer a yield advantage of 15 to 20% compared to the best purebred varieties under comparable conditions.

The partnership with Brazil follows a complementary logic. The country is the leading rice producer in Latin America, with an annual production of approximately 7.1 million tons of milled rice, and has significant experience in tropical and irrigated rice cultivation.

Furthermore, FAO data show that China’s average rice yield reached 7.14 tonnes per hectare in 2024, compared to 6.72 tonnes in Brazil.

In comparison, Guinea’s rice sector recorded an average yield of 1.5 tonnes per hectare over the same period, highlighting a significant productivity gap.

Brazil is also emerging as an important partner as Guinea looks to expand its agricultural capacity. Cooperation with Brazil offers opportunities in agricultural research, mechanization, farm management and value-chain development.

Brazil’s agricultural sector has developed considerable expertise in large-scale production, tropical agriculture and the use of technology to raise productivity.

Agricultural ties between Brazil and China are also expanding, with both countries identifying agricultural technology, machinery, investment, and supply-chain resilience as areas for deeper cooperation.

The gap between local production and demand remains significant

For Guinea, the objective extends beyond producing more paddy. Strengthening irrigation, improving access to quality inputs, developing post-harvest infrastructure, and expanding processing capacity will be essential to turn higher farm yields into greater domestic rice availability. Better storage and milling facilities could also reduce losses and improve the quality and marketability of locally produced rice.

Guinea has set a target of achieving rice self-sufficiency by 2030, but imported more than 1 million tonnes of rice in 2024, reflecting the substantial gap between domestic production and demand.

The latest partnerships arrive as the country launches the agricultural component of its Simandou 2040 program, a broader initiative unveiled in June that plans more than US$18 billion in agricultural investment.

The program includes plans to organize 5,000 agricultural cooperatives, develop about 100 aggregators, and build or rehabilitate more than 20,000 kilometers of rural roads.

Guinea’s growing cooperation with China and Brazil therefore represents an important component of its agricultural modernization strategy.

If technology transfer, infrastructure investment and farmer support are successfully combined, the partnerships could help Guinea significantly increase rice productivity and take a major step toward its goal of meeting more of its rice requirements from domestic production.

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