Date: 2025-12-30  Views: 379

It is the rainy season in Angola, a country in southern Africa, in late December. On Huambo Farm in Sigola City, vast cornfields stretch to the horizon, and continuous soybean fields roll with green waves. Together with towering grain silos, they hold promise of a bumper harvest.

In 2016, Zhu Jinlin, Chairman of Jiangzhou Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., invested to build Huambo Farm. The farm now produces 20,000 tons of grain and agricultural by-products for Angola every year, lifting thousands of local residents out of extreme poverty or easing their hardship.

On December 11, at the 2025 Global Poverty Reduction Partnership Seminar co-hosted by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the project Huambo Farm: Belt and Road Poverty Alleviation – Integrated Food Security and Community Development Project of Jiangsu Jiangzhou Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. in Angola was selected as one of the best cases in the 6th Global Poverty Reduction Case Collection Campaign. It was also the only independently submitted case from a Jiangsu enterprise on the winner list.

From sowing the first seed on Huambo Farm to winning this international award, this story embodies mutual dedication on Angola’s red soil. It tells how a businessman from Jiangsu traveled to Africa and worked hand in hand with local farmers to achieve win-win progress in poverty alleviation.

The first impression Angola left on Zhu Jinlin was sky-high food prices.

“When I undertook construction projects here in 2009, one ton of corn cost over 3,500 RMB, while the domestic price in China was only around 2,000 RMB per ton,” Zhu recalled. Angolans love funge, a staple cooked from cornmeal or cassava flour. In rural villages, a single pot of funge feeds an entire family for a whole day. Some people even pick wild mangoes and bananas along the roadside to stave off hunger.

“I was born in the 1960s in a rural village. I often went hungry, walking barefoot to work the land and attend school. What I saw here was even poorer than my childhood days,” Zhu described the scene as extreme poverty. After further research, he learned that Angola was once known as the “Granary of Southern Africa”, with more than 35 million hectares of arable land. However, after Portuguese colonial rulers withdrew in 1975, 27 years of civil war turned this food exporter into a net importer. Long-term reliance on imports drove food prices sharply upward.

“Growing grain in Africa is not the hard part; the real challenge lies in supporting infrastructure.” The idea of running a grain farm gradually took root in his mind.

Around 2011, China and Angola signed a financing project to build large demonstration farms and improve Angola’s food self-sufficiency. Zhu’s company Dajiang Construction was contracted to build two farms and run trial operations. During this period, he grew determined to establish his own farm.

Huambo, Angola’s second-largest province after the capital Luanda, is known as “Angola’s Spring City” and a major grain-producing base. To build a granary on this fertile land, Zhu contacted the Deputy Governor, Governor and national investment authorities of Angola through intermediaries to secure large tracts of land.

“Under local regulations at that time, provincial governments could only approve farmland projects below 1,000 hectares. That was far too small. After reserving land for housing, breeding and processing, almost nothing remained. I wanted to build a farm covering tens of thousands of hectares.”

China is Angola’s largest trading partner and source of foreign investment. Learning that a Chinese firm planned to develop large-scale farming, the Angolan government offered full support: they arranged a helicopter for Zhu to survey potential sites from the air. Eventually, he marked out the location for Huambo Farm in Sigola City, Huambo Province.

He brought back good news together with a bag of local red soil to China. He sent soil samples to the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences for testing and presented his farm blueprint to provincial and municipal agricultural authorities.

“The Jiangsu Provincial Agriculture Commission fully supported my plan and suggested integrating the project into Jiangsu’s Belt and Road Initiative.” In 2016, Chinese and Angolan representatives signed an agreement at the Jiangsu-Macao Lusophone Countries Business Summit, bringing more policy backing to Huambo Farm.

Motivated by shared expectations from both nations, Zhu and his team worked around the clock. Before the rainy season arrived, they planted the first batch of seeds on 3,000 mu of leveled farmland.

“Based on soil analysis, the provincial academy screened 140 promising seed varieties worldwide, and we selected 30 for trial planting.”

Yet new challenges emerged as crops sprouted. Sowing was only the starting point of grain production.

Following rainfall, rows of corn, soybean and potato shoots broke through the red earth.

Zhu explained that these crops were chosen based on local eating habits, livestock feed demand and China’s technical strengths. Even so, many seed varieties struggled to adapt to the local climate. After consulting experts at the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences remotely, he ran a second round of trials among the top 10 surviving varieties and finally picked five high-performing strains.

After securing good crop varieties, stable seed supply became the next priority. In early 2018, Zhu turned again to his hometown. He partnered with Jiangsu Hongqi Seed Industry to guarantee seed supply and introduce seed-breeding technology to Angola. Later, he invited three teams of experts from Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry to share field management experience, and specialists from Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences to solve problems in potato breeding and cultivation.

“Angolan farmland lacks irrigation facilities and farm machinery. Farmers sow seeds by hand with no proper field management. Their rice yield is merely 1,000 kilograms per hectare, less than 60 kilograms per mu,” said Jiang Zongqing, Associate Professor at the College of Landscape and Horticulture. When he traveled to Angola in November 2018 to teach practical rice farming techniques, local participants were highly engaged and immediately set up a WeChat group for follow-up communication.

José Manuel dos Santos, Mayor of Sigola City, regarded Huambo Farm as a bridge spreading Chinese agricultural technology. “These training sessions are highly practical and have greatly improved the work of local farmers and government technicians.”

Advanced Chinese farming technology nourished the crops, bringing hope of higher incomes to poor Angolan farmers.

“At the beginning, all machine operators were Chinese. Now local Angolans operate nearly all 40 sets of large farming equipment covering ploughing, sowing and harvesting,” Zhu said. The farm now has 8 Chinese staff and 60 permanent Angolan workers.

“As an old Chinese saying goes: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. We follow this philosophy in our Angola farm.”

Simão Nzori, 38, has worked on the farm for nine years. He mastered seeder, plough and fertilizer spreader operation, and manages more than 100 seasonal farmhands during harvest seasons. Promoted to Farm Manager, he is satisfied with his income.

“Ordinary Angolan workers earn around 150,000 Kwanza (roughly 1,000 RMB) per month, while technicians and managers earn 300,000 to 500,000 Kwanza (2,000–3,500 RMB), enough to support an extended family.”

Localized production and localized employment. With his practice as a “transnational farmer”, Zhu created a unique model for poverty alleviation.

More than 2,000 hectares of wasteland were turned into productive farmland. Crop straw and bran from the planting zone serve as feed for pigs, cattle and sheep in the breeding zone. Huambo Farm has become a well-known granary. Among all Chinese private agricultural enterprises in Angola, it ranks first in investment and cultivated area.

This year, the farm recorded yields of 400 kilograms of corn and 200 kilograms of soybeans per mu, with total grain and agricultural by-product output reaching nearly 20,000 tons. To make food more affordable for local people, since 2017 the farm has sold top-grade grain to local businesses and residents at 20 percent below the market average in Angola.

Angolan Vice President Sousa spoke highly of the project. “Agriculture is a core part of the government’s economic diversification strategy. Agricultural development will benefit more Angolan people.”

Food security marks the first step out of poverty, while education helps break the intergenerational cycle of deprivation.

In 2019, Jiangzhou Agriculture funded the construction of Angola Taizhou Hope Primary School next to Huambo Farm in Sigola City. The brick-red building stands on the savanna, with seven classrooms, teachers’ offices, kitchens and restrooms. In October the same year, 700 Angolan pupils started their new semester here.

“The classrooms are bright and tidy with brand-new desks and chairs. The Chinese enterprise has also set up multiple scholarship programs. Children can attend school nearby and ease their families’ financial burden,” said Headmaster Nasimando Catumbela. The school now enrolls nearly 1,000 students.

Local villager Santos witnessed the opening ceremony and sent both of his children to study here. “The old school was dilapidated. Older students had to walk for hours to distant schools, so I had my eldest son stay home to farm. Everything is different now. This new school is the most beautiful building in the whole village.”

Three years later, the company began constructing Shahidam Community Hospital. Completed on December 12, 2022, the hospital has a reception hall, consultation rooms, wards and a pharmacy. Two resident doctors and a team of nurses provide basic medical services for thousands of residents across six surrounding villages.

“Malaria has the highest infection and mortality rate in Angola. Old community clinics had poor layout and inadequate conditions, leaving malaria patients without timely treatment. Now we have plenty of anti-malaria medicines donated by Chinese companies,” said Dr. Luís Sandolina Jorge, Hospital Director. The new facility and Chinese medical supplies solved an urgent public health problem.

From a large farm to a primary school and a community hospital, more and more local villagers know Jiangzhou Agriculture and Zhu Jinlin. “They greet me warmly with ‘Amigo’, which means friend in Portuguese. I always feel delighted to hear that.”

When 18-year-old Angolan Reginaldo Manuel met Zhu, he called him “Uncle” in fluent Chinese. He is the 14th young Angolan sponsored by Zhu to study in Jiangsu. Thirteen other Angolan youths previously received grants to study agricultural technology at Jiangsu Vocational College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.

“Chinese food is delicious, and daily life is extremely convenient. You can handle work and life entirely with a smartphone.” After more than three months in Jiangsu, Manuel developed strong interest in China’s digital economy and chose to major in e-commerce.

“I hope to contribute to Angola’s economic development in the future, so more Angolans can enjoy rich, diverse food just like people in China.”

Statistics show Angola spends over 2 billion US dollars annually on food imports. To boost domestic grain output, Zhu plans to develop cooperative farming.

“Once land development on the farm is completed, we will set up agricultural cooperatives. Local farmers will take over farmland, while we supply seeds, fertilizer and agricultural machinery. We will also purchase all grain and farm produce from farmers for centralized processing and sales.” He aims to replicate Jiangsu’s successful cooperative farming model in Angola.

Crops keep ripening season after season on Huambo Farm.

Standing on the red farmland, Zhu holds firm to a vision: Angola will once again become the “Granary of Southern Africa”, and hardworking Angolan people will surely achieve their own moderate prosperity, just like the Chinese people.