The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has embraced South–South and triangular cooperation (SSTC) as a key delivery modality to catalyse agricultural development, food security, rural development, poverty reduction and nutrition over the past two decades. The South-South and Triangular Cooperation Division (PST) aims at scaling up FAO’s SSTC programme and further leveraging SSTC to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

China and Africa are the two main home to the population who face challenges in the sustainable agricultural development especially in agriculture and food system transformation and development while China and Africa have made fruitful progress in agricultural cooperation under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). This effort has led to achievements in agricultural investment and trade, agricultural research and development, technology demonstration and application, and human resources development. While China and Africa have a common interest in strengthening China-African exchanges and cooperation in agricultural science and technology, it is crucial for China to comprehensively promote rural revitalization and accelerate agricultural and rural modernization and it is also an important period for Africa to increase its agricultural productivity and enhance the agrifood value chain. The China-Africa Cooperation Vision 2035 clearly stated that agricultural cooperation should be extended to the whole value chain and cooperation in S&T innovation provides new impetus for development. And there’s clear need from Africa about learning from China’s experience on poverty reduction, food security and agri-food system transformation, especially through agriculture S&T development and cooperation.

In the year 2022, FAO and CAAS signed the FAO-CAAS Innovation Platform Executive Agreement, and agreed to invest in Agricultural Technology Innovation, Talent training and Capacity Building, Resource Sharing and Academic Research, Technical Consultation and Service through triangular cooperation. Consistent with FAO SSTC four strategic areas of focus (SAFs) especially the partnerships and collaborations, and the thematic areas of focus (TAFs) on agricultural innovation, a Workshop on China-Africa Agricultural Science and Technology Cooperation under the FAO-CAAS Innovation Platform through SSTC is proposed to advocate and set the agenda for China-Africa agricultural science and technology cooperation, to broker knowledge, enhance partnerships, mechanisms and collaborations, and provide evidence based deliverables for policy making.