"100 Days to Tell 100 Stories of the Communist Party of China's Foreign Exchanges" No. 90
In the endless rice fields of Madagascar's Mayiqi, local farmers skillfully and quickly harvest ripe rice with rice roots in one hand and sickle in the other. Subsequently, they held the grain high above their heads and repeatedly slammed it hard, and the ripe grain fell off one by one, and the joy of the harvest spread throughout this beautiful and rich land in this "boom" sound...
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These rice are hybrid rice from China. It is hard to imagine that, until the seeds of hybrid rice are widely sown on this land, Madagascar, due to the low yield of rice, accounts for more than 80% of the total population of agricultural population, and the rice fields, which account for two-thirds of the cultivated land, will still not be able to fill the stomach of the Malagasy people.
Lucien, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries of Madagascar, said that the main difficulties and bottlenecks in the development of rice in Madagascar are the lack of high-quality seeds and the lack of technical training. It is precisely because of such difficulties that in August 2007, the "Aid to Malagasy Hybrid Rice Demonstration Center" project undertaken by the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences was launched as one of the top ten agricultural demonstration centers for aiding Africa. Step by step, the Chinese Government has begun to implement the solemn commitments it made at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2006.
Located east of the African continent and west of the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is the largest island in Africa and the fourth largest island in the world. Whether it is the tropical rainforest climate along the southeast coast, the tropical plateau climate in the central region, or the savannah climate in the west, the climatic conditions in China are very different. So, how can China's hybrid rice take root in Madagascar and avoid the southern orange and northern citrus? Yuan Longping gave the answer in the preface to the book "Very Rice": "'Tao can be tao, there is no constant way', each hybrid rice must be rooted in its unique living environment, there is no unchanged and never-say-die rice seeds, must continue to innovate, adapt to the environment, 'rice' is always changing." ”
Therefore, in order to find high-yielding seeds that can adapt to the various climates of Madagascar, the indigenous cultivation of hybrid rice in Madagascar is realized. Hu Yuefang, an expert of the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences aiding Africa, has traveled to almost all the rice-growing areas in Madagascar in ten years. Under the guidance of Academician Yuan Longping, he led the team to successfully cultivate 3 kinds of high-yield hybrid rice seeds suitable for the local climate and soil, and passed the approval of the local government. With its higher resistance to pests and diseases and the potential to increase yields, it has taken an important step in the localization of hybrid rice.
Yuan Longping and malagasy friends in a hybrid rice paddy field
"It is better to teach people to fish than to teach people to fish." In order for the Malagasy people to grow their own high-yield hybrid rice, the project team employs a large number of local workers to teach them planting techniques from sowing to planting, from weeding to pest control to harvesting. Hu Yuefang said: "We must cultivate intensively, manage scientifically, we must demonstrate, and we must do everything in detail." It is under the guidance of this spirit that the Chinese experts of the project team ride motorcycles or pickup trucks around the test field every day, checking the quality of work and guiding local workers.
On December 9, 2019, Yuan Longping delivered a brief speech at the opening ceremony of the first China-Africa Agricultural Cooperation Forum, saying, "Madagascar (hybrid rice) has reached 20,000 hectares of planting area, with an average yield of 8 tons per hectare, an increase of 100% to 300% over local varieties." "At present, Madagascar has become the country with the largest planting area and the highest yield of hybrid rice in Africa, and the first African country to realize the development of the whole industrial chain of hybrid rice.
Behind the successful cultivation of hybrid rice in Madagascar, there are also many stories of Malagasy people getting rich. Njara, a local employee of the Mayiqi Hybrid Rice High Yield Demonstration Training Base, said: "I have planted a lot of hybrid rice in my own field, and the harvest is very good. I've been with the company for 10 years, and my income has been growing, and over the years I've saved up some money and started building new homes. Randall, the "King of Hybrid Rice" in Arafaf Village, Ambatongdrazaka City, after training and listening to knowledge lectures, successfully planted hybrid rice and lived in a red brick house that made the villagers envious, who could have imagined that a few years ago he and his whole family would be crammed into a small thatched hut. In 2010, he planted 1 hectare of hybrid rice and harvested more than 7 tons of rice, producing three times the yield of local conventional rice. By the end of 2014, his planting area had exceeded 20 hectares, and he had also brought more than 20 farmers in the village to plant hybrid rice, and the area had expanded to more than 200 hectares.
"A seed that has drummed up the 'rice bags' of the Malagasy people and their 'money bags'." In Madagascar, guests come to the house, and the best gift is rice. In August 2017, Sahuri, director of the Department of Plant Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries of Madagascar, and his party sent such a gift to Yuan Longping, the father of hybrid rice, a bunch of hybrid rice printed on the new version of madagascar's largest denomination currency.
"Rice is the most important food crop for the Malagasy people, and China's hybrid rice is growing in Madagascar, and the malagasy people have basically got rid of hunger!" In order to thank you, the people of Madagascar have specially chosen rice as a new version of the currency pattern! Sahuri said excitedly.
The new version of madagascar currency is printed with Chinese hybrid rice
Today, the "hybrid rice people" are still struggling in the fields of Madagascar, overcoming the problems caused by the epidemic and writing a new legend. In May 2019, the only overseas sub-center of the National Hybrid Rice Engineering and Technology Research Center was listed in Madagascar. The China-FAO-Madagascar South-South Cooperation Project was also launched at the end of 2019. What is even more gratifying is that not only Madagascar, but also in Cameroon, Burundi, Senegal and other countries, the story of China-Africa friendship behind the hybrid rice seeds is still continuing...