Leaders of Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) emphasized the importance of technological cooperation with Chinese institutions to scale up agroecology initiatives in Brazil. The partnerships the movement has been developing with China focus on bio-inputs and small-scale agricultural mechanization, fields in which China has a consolidated industrial base and technologies that are more affordable than those from other regions.
“We, the Landless Workers Movement, are over 450 000 settled families and more than 100 000 camping families, and our main task is to make agroecology widespread,” said national MST leader Tuíra Tule to BdF. She explained that cooperation with China centers on two key pillars to achieve this goal.
“One is self-production of our organic fertilizers. Bio-inputs are fundamental for gaining autonomy in producing what we need for this major agroecological transition,” she said. “The other pillar is mechanization. Today in Brazil, unlike here in China, which has more than 2 500 small-tractor factories, Brazil doesn’t have a single one.”
The figure she cited refers to China’s largest companies in the sector. In total, the country has more than 18 000 agricultural-machinery manufacturers, according to the Future Vision Industrial Research Institute.
MST production coordinator Adalberto Martins — known as Pardal — stressed the unique value of working with the Asian nation. “This relationship is very important because the machinery developed here consists of small-scale equipment,” he said. “Across Latin America you won’t find an agricultural-mechanics industry of this scope that focuses on small-holder needs.”
Brazil-China dialogue on land reform
Both leaders recently traveled to China to attend the Global South Academic Forum, held in Shanghai on November 13 and 14. Organized by East China Normal University, the University of Johannesburg, and the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, the event brought together delegates from 31 countries to debate the post–World War II international order and the contemporary challenges faced by the Global South.
The MST representatives took part in the panel “Historic Struggles for Land and Contemporary Rural Revitalization: The History of China-Brazil Cooperation in Family Farming”, within the session “Sharing Rural Stories from the Global South: Development and Peace.”
Cooperation taking place
According to Tuíra Tule, the various partnerships with China have already led to the delivery of more than 60 different machines to Brazil.
“Today these help us strengthen at least seven productive chains, rice, cassava, vegetables, fruit, seeds, and other crops, allowing us to expand small- and medium-scale production through mechanization,” she said.
In November 2024, the Brazil-China Center for Research, Development, and Promotion of Technology and Mechanization for Family Farming was inaugurated at the University of Brasília (UnB), with Chinese Education Minister Huai Jinpeng in attendance. The initiative promotes student exchanges: Chinese graduate students will spend time in MST technical schools such as the Latin American School of Agroecology and the Institute for Training and Research in Land Reform (Iterra).
Another project is the Brazil-China Demonstration Unit for Agricultural Machinery in the municipality of Apodi, Rio Grande do Norte state. It stems from a 2022 memorandum of understanding between the Northeast Consortium of Brazilian states, the International Institute for Innovation in Agricultural Equipment and Smart Farming at China Agricultural University, and China’s Association of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers. Roughly 30 machines, including micro-tractors, harvesters, seeders, and planters, are being tested in 20 types of family-farm crops across Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte.
The UnB project also created a Digital Family Agroecology Laboratory, equipped with more than 20 devices to monitor soil, climate, and productivity. “For us in the Landless Workers Movement, this major cooperation agreement with China, in these two fundamental areas, bio-inputs and mechanization, is a huge step toward the massive agroecological transition we are striving to build for the Brazilian people,” Tuíra said.
China’s rural revitalization as inspiration
During the forum, the Brazilian delegation learned about China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy, developed to consolidate the eradication of extreme poverty achieved in 2020. According to an official statement from the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and the State Council, rural revitalization is key to “accelerating comprehensive rural development” and achieving “Chinese-style modernization.” “For us it’s inspiring to understand these steps, how agrarian reform was achieved through the revolution and how rural revitalization continues to evolve,” said Tuíra Tule. She noted that the Chinese model redefines rural life by integrating tourism, sports, cooperation, and agro-industrialization.
Adalberto Martins observed that China has spent the past 15 years revitalizing its countryside, in a successful anti-hunger campaign involving more than 3 million people. “We came here to share the MST’s experience, why agrarian reform never took place in our country,” he explained. “And despite that, the MST emerged from this land-concentration process and, upon winning land, raised agriculture to another level: producing healthy food, restoring common natural goods, and leading a massive campaign to plant trees and ensure food production.”
The 2025 Global South Academic Forum carried the theme “Victory in the World Anti-Fascist War and the Post-War International Order: The Past and the Future.” It marked the 80th anniversary of the Allies victory in World War II and the founding of the United Nations. According to the organizers, the event sought to strengthen solidarity among Global South nations in the face of geopolitical fragmentation, concentration of military and technological power, and the resurgence of fascism.
For Tuíra Tule, attending the forum was “a unique experience to be here on behalf of the Landless Movement and to better understand this Asian context that often feels so distant from our own reality.” She highlighted the opportunity to learn about “different forms of resistance against fascism, and new ways we can cooperate and organize with other Global South movements.”