Originally published: IAPC-Roots on September 16, 2026 by Mauro Ramos (more by IAPC-Roots) (Posted Oct 05, 2026)

Agriculture, Ecology, EnvironmentAsia, ChinaInterview, NewswireFertiliser

In an interview with Bem Viver, a Brasil de Fato programme, during the sixth edition of the International Bioinputs School in Suzhou, China, Professor Li Ji of China Agricultural University (CAU) stated that countries in the Global South could meet between 30% and 50% of their fertiliser demand by making use of locally produced organic waste.

“Over time, this would allow them to build autonomous national fertiliser production systems and, by extension, more resilient food systems,” said Li Ji, head of the Suzhou Institute of Organic Recycling Research and one of the CAU researchers who led the training programme.

For decades, China was the world’s largest consumer of chemical fertilisers, using approximately 50 million tonnes per year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Today, according to FAO data, it is the only country that has reduced its consumption.

Chemical fertilisers are synthetic nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Their excessive use degrades soils, contaminates aquifers and releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas.

The school, organised by CAU in partnership with the International Association for Popular Cooperation (IAPC) Baobab and Beijing VOTO Biotech Group, under the guidance of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, was held at the Suzhou Rural Revitalisation School from 15 to 30 June.

The programme brought together participants from 13 countries: Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Mexico, Morocco, Mongolia, , Pakistan, and Tanzania, among others. The sessions combined classes on microbiology, composting and fertiliser production with four technical visits to operational facilities in Jiangsu and Shanghai, and two final days dedicated to exchanges between delegations on organic waste management in each country.

China and Brazil: Complementary Technologies A Food System Built on Dependence

Bárbara Loureiro, coordinator of Baobab in Brazil, explained that the context of the 6th International Bioinputs School is part of “a process of building this Global South cooperation network, because the problems faced by countries in the Global South are very similar and are linked to an agri-food system that has always been built according to a logic of subordination and dependence on the Global North”.

According to Loureiro, building a sovereign network for bioinputs production “also aims to break with this logic of dependence”. For her, access to technology is directly connected to food sovereignty:

Having the right to choose how to produce your food and for whom to produce it is also part of this logic of organising the production of bioinputs.

Professor Li Ji conducted two days of classes on the current state of composting technology in China, presenting the results of almost 30 years of CAU research, including technologies and equipment for composting on an industrial scale. In China, according to Li Ji, it is estimated that at least 50% of chemical fertilisers could be replaced through the appropriate reuse of organic waste. The researcher notes that, following the war between Russia and Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East, “practically all countries in the Global South are facing severe shortages of chemical fertilisers”.

This crisis is forcing them to build their own domestic fertiliser systems.

Caroline Gomide, co-coordinator of the school and a researcher at the University of Brasília (UnB) and CAU, highlighted a technological combination that Brazil and China are developing jointly. “Chinese technology for accelerating composting through reactors and microorganisms is combined with remineralisers, in which Brazil is a pioneer and also has this mature technology that has existed in Brazil for more than 20 years,” said Gomide. “We are combining these two technologies, which therefore generate an organomineral fertiliser, with the aim of incorporating rock powder during the composting process.” In addition to providing nutrients, the minerals “are capable of capturing ammonia”, reducing the emissions typically associated with the process.

The Risk of Bioinputs Being Integrated into the Agribusiness Model

For Paula Veliz, from Baobab’s bioinputs technical team, the growth of the bioinputs sector, at around 15% per year, brings a risk that popular movements need to confront. “Our challenge, as popular movements, is to ensure that this technology is not once again subordinated to the logic of agribusiness, to the packaging and privatisation of this type of technology, as happened, for example, with seeds,” said Veliz. The goal is to “keep this technology in the hands of farmers and their cooperatives so that it can serve popular interests in producing sustainably”.

“There is no way to scale up agroecology or build a perspective for confronting agribusiness in response to the crisis if there is no agrarian reform and no access to legally guaranteed rights over land,” said Loureiro. For her, bioinputs are “one of the central pillars for scaling up agroecology”, as part of a response that places “the peasantry as the central subject” in confronting what she describes as “an environmental, ecological, food and civilisational crisis, which is also part of the structural crisis of capitalism”.

Republished from Brasil de Fato / Translated from Portuguese /  Available at: https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2026/07/04/escola-de-bioinsumos-na-china-sul-global-pode-suprir-ate-50-da-demanda-de-fertilizantes-com-residuos-organicos/

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