An endless field stretches across the village, green and orderly like a well-maintained lawn, creating an image familiar to millions of farmers in Africa.
In a small village in China, the journey of a single grain of rice does not necessarily have to end on the table. Rice is processed into fine wine for export, with farmers earning almost twenty times what they would have taken home if they sold the produce straight to the market.
That simple shift of turning raw agricultural produce into another product offers a glimpse of one of the many challenges African economies are still struggling to address when it comes to value addition.
In Daizhuang, Jurong City in Jiangsu Province, eastern China, farmers have organised themselves into groups and established a winery that processes rice, earning them extra income and creating more jobs instead of selling their produce directly to the market.
“The ingredients of this product, including wine, come from the fields in this village,” Zhou Kousheng, chairman of the Jiangsu Branch of Zhenjiang Tushan Tushui Ecological Agriculture, told Radio Tamazuj during our writer’s field visit.
The idea is particularly relevant to Africa, especially South Sudan, where agriculture remains a central source of livelihoods for many households, although much of the potential value is lost due to a lack of value addition.
Instead of simply selling rice, the Chinese village is trying to build businesses around it.
“Usually, we turn rice into organic wine, with the purpose of increasing the income and profit of local farmers,” Zhou Kousheng added.
The approach is part of a longer agricultural experiment introduced by Zhao Yafu, a Chinese agricultural pioneer who dedicated his life and experience to lifting rural communities out of poverty.
After officially retiring in 2001, Yafu volunteered in Daizhuang Village, then one of the poorest villages in Jiangsu.
He introduced environmentally friendly, pest-free organic farming. The idea revolutionised agricultural production, increasing annual per capita income in Daizhuang from $500 to more than $7,000.
Much of Yafu’s work is documented at an exhibition centre in the village, serving as an inspiration to residents.
For more than 60 years, Zhao worked with farmers, encouraging them to adopt new techniques, improve production and, importantly, find markets for their products.
The wine is matured for about two and a half years, while annual production has reached approximately 200 tonnes.
The business reports annual sales revenue of more than 40 million yuan (approximately $6 million).
The producers say their method allows rice wine to be made throughout the year.
With support from the Chinese government, South Sudan is projected to produce about 25,000 tonnes of rice between 2026 and 2027. The government of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and its partners have also launched a government-managed cultivation initiative targeting 2,500 acres, drawing largely from the 4,600 feddans at the Aweil Rice Irrigation Scheme.
A standard 50-kilogram bag of locally produced rice costs between $35 and $50 in South Sudan. The price is almost the same in China.
However, the same quantity of rice can produce between 75 and 125 litres (20–33 gallons) of traditional Chinese rice wine.
A standard bottle of unsalted Chinese wine retails for between $20 and $35 per gallon. A rice farmer in Daizhuang Village is therefore likely to earn at least 20 times more than an average farmer in South Sudan who sells rice directly to the market.
Farmers in Daizhuang say selling raw crops is less attractive. The small Chinese village, with about 2,800 farmers, reportedly has an average annual per capita income of 47,000 yuan (approximately $7,000).
African countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Egypt, Madagascar and Senegal are among the continent’s major rice producers.
Yet a good harvest does not necessarily translate into higher incomes for most African farmers, as many sell their produce directly to consumers.
Processing can change that equation.
The Chinese producers say African companies interested in making rice wine could start with relatively small-scale equipment for testing and production.
“The priority is the ingredient. So the quality of the rice is quite important. Whether the rice produced in the local area, in African countries, can be used to make wine is a key question,” said one farmer in Wuxi, stressing the importance of the quality of locally produced rice.
Value addition also creates more opportunities. Here in China, for example, only about 30% of the income earned by farmers in Daizhuang comes directly from farming.
The rest comes from other businesses built around agriculture.
The contrast is significant.
A farmer who sells raw rice participates in the first stage of a supply chain.
A farmer whose rice is turned into wine becomes part of a much longer chain involving processing, technology, packaging, storage, distribution, and sales.
That is where a larger share of the value can potentially be created.
But there are limits to how directly the Chinese model can be transferred to Africa. Land systems, consumer markets, infrastructure, financing, and farming conditions differ widely across countries.
The village itself says international cooperation in some areas would require government-to-government discussions.
But the underlying idea is easier to transfer.
For African countries trying to move beyond exporting raw commodities, that may be the more important lesson.
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