The rice is ripe.
In April 2022, rice seeds from China produced heavy ears of rice in a rice field in southern Africa. Prior to this, there had been no rice on Botswana's land for a long time.
After the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Botswana entered a national state of emergency. The import-dependent country is at risk of food outages. After a local overseas Chinese contacted the team of the Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center, a batch of water-saving and drought-resistant rice seeds crossed the ocean to Africa, and after two years of breeding and trial planting, they finally achieved a bumper harvest.
Under the haze of the global epidemic, as a major food crop, the ability of rice to grow independently has never become a hidden concern for many countries as it is today. In order to ensure food security, in addition to Botswana, there are many African countries such as Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso... All are planted with water-saving and drought-resistant rice seeds developed by Chinese scientists.
Now, from Shanghai, we are thousands of miles away to see how these seeds take root in the land of Africa and how they grow full ears of rice.
Water- and drought-tolerant rice test field in China, Gaborone, Botswana, on June 27. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Cekisot Barlow)
A call for help
The sun shines on the rice fields of Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, and a gust of wind comes and golden waves rise and fall.
On June 27, 2022, the "China Rice Harvest Day" ceremony is taking place here. Chinese Ambassador to Botswana Wang Xuefeng, together with Acting President of Botswana Tsohovane, walked into the rice test field and picked up a sickle to harvest rice to celebrate the harvest.
At the ceremony, more than one Botswana lamented that he ate rice every day, but never knew how the rice grew, and this time he finally saw it. Nan Gengji, who also celebrated at the ceremony site, felt relieved that everyone's efforts were not in vain.
It all started with that crucial phone call two years ago. One day in June 2020, Nan Gengji paced back and forth in the living room, finally making up his mind to dial Luo Lijun's phone.
Nan Gengji is the chairman of Africa Agriculture Co., Ltd. and Africa Mileage Group, and the president of the China-Africa Non-Governmental Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Association. Since coming to Botswana in 1999 to start his own business, he has lived a busy monthly commute between China and African countries, "flying hundreds of times a year". But in the past two years, the epidemic has interrupted frequent work trips.
Also stagnant is Botswana's food imports. The main food crops eaten by Botswana natives are corn, sorghum and rice, most of which rely on imports.
In 2020, due to the lockdown of the epidemic, the freight trucks could not enter Botswana, and the food transportation lines on which they depended were interrupted. That's why Nan called Luo Lijun, the chief scientist at the Shanghai Agricultural Biogene Center.
"When it comes to growing rice, Chinese are experts. I think That China is rich in land, and there is always a region where the soil and climate are similar to Botswana's, and there is always rice that can be grown in Africa. Nan Gengji recalled.
Although an agricultural company had been registered 10 years earlier, the business in the agricultural sector had never really been involved. After the outbreak, the "problem of eating" forced him to start paying attention to agriculture. He looked for information on drought-resistant crops on the Internet, and the name of Raleigh Jun appeared in the search results, followed by the entry "water-saving and drought-resistant rice".
According to the data, the water-saving and drought-resistant rice developed by The team led by Luo Lijun has reached 700-750 kilograms per mu under the condition of saving 50% of water. At present, the planting area of water-saving and drought-resistant rice in many provinces in China has exceeded 3 million mu, and has been promoted to countries along the "Belt and Road".
Nan gengshu felt promising to grow rice in Botswana, but still had many questions in his mind.
"It's very relaxing to talk to you now, but two years ago, when I contacted Professor Luo at the same location, I still had a lot of concerns." Nan Gengjiao said. He wasn't sure if Shanghai, far across the globe, could provide the right seeds and whether planting experiments spanning thousands of miles would be successful.
Luo Lijun was also impressed by the phone call, "At that time, he found me and said that there was no food in the local area, and he was very anxious. Separated by tens of thousands of kilometers, Luo Lijun was touched by the enthusiasm and desire of overseas Chinese to improve the lives of locals and decided to try.
The Shanghai Center for Agricultural Biogenesis originally had a project to cooperate with Africa, but the countries that cooperated at that time did not include Botswana. Researcher Liu Zaochang is the main person in charge of the Africa project, and Luo Lijun arranged for him to dock with Nan Gengjiao.
"At that time, I felt that there was no reason why this thing could not be done well." Nan Gengjiao said. He has been doing business in Botswana for more than 20 years, is familiar with local customs, and has accumulated a lot of resources with government agencies and all sectors of society, but knows very little about agricultural technology. After receiving technical support from China, he was more confident, "Since we can play to the advantages of both sides, this must be done."
In order to introduce drought-resistant rice, Africa Agriculture Co., Ltd. in Nan Gengshu signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Botswana to quickly establish an innovative agricultural center aimed at promoting the cultivation of drought-resistant crops in Botswana, including water-saving and drought-resistant rice, and screening and cultivating the most suitable varieties for promotion throughout the country.
During the growth of drought-resistant rice, technicians patrol the field to check the growth. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
An academic turn
Soon, a technical symposium of agricultural experts from the two countries was held online. By discussing specific soil environments and climatic conditions, experts can decide what seeds to send.
In order to select the right variety, researcher Liu Zaochang made a comprehensive understanding of Botswana. This landlocked country in southern Africa is located on the Tropic of Cancer, bordering Zimbabwe to the east, Namibia to the west, Zambia to the north and South Africa to the south. The terrain belongs to the plateau area, with an average altitude of about 1000 meters, most of the area belongs to the savannah climate, and the western part is desert and semi-desert climate. The average annual temperature is 21 °C, and the average annual precipitation is only 400 mm.
In order to improve the probability of successful trial planting, in addition to the team in Shanghai, Nan Gengshu also contacted relevant experts in Anhui and Jiangsu. In the end, seven kinds of upland rice seeds were provided in the three places to enter the trial planting process. The drought-resistant rice varieties provided by the Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center are low-carbon emission water-saving and drought-resistant rice "WDR73" based on "Drought Excellence 73" and improved by resistance.
Compared with traditional rice, water-saving and drought-resistant rice can save more than 50% of water in high-yield fields with water irrigation, and the yield per mu can reach 750 kg. Even in abandoned land and mountain land, it is possible to achieve a yield of more than 600 kilograms per mu.
Many years later, when agricultural scientist Luo Lijun introduced water-saving and drought-resistant rice, he still remembers the "decisive moment" more than 20 years ago.
On an ordinary weekend in 1998, Luo Lijun, who was a visiting scholar at the International Rice Research Institute, accidentally read an article about agriculture and water resources. A set of data in the article caught his attention, rice water consumption accounts for 70% of the total agricultural water consumption, and agricultural water consumption accounts for 70% of the total national water consumption. In the industry environment with "increasing production" as the main goal, Luo Lijun suddenly realized that "water conservation" should also become an important direction of research.
"To make China's water affordable for China's rice, there was only one idea at that time." Raleigh Jun said. In 2001, he led the team to Shanghai and established the Shanghai Agricultural Biological Gene Center, which officially opened the transformation of the research direction, with the main goal of developing "water-saving and drought-resistant rice".
Water-saving and drought-resistant rice must not only solve the problem of water conservation, but also solve all the problems related to it. Drought is not only related to rainfall and groundwater volume, but also to air humidity and wind direction. How to survive in drought conditions while achieving high yields is a systemic question.
"20 years. We have finally figured out these problems now. Raleigh Jun said. On November 3, 2021, Luo Lijun's project "Creation, Conservation and Research and Utilization of Rice Genetic Resources" won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This is the second time that China's agricultural circles have won the first prize in the selection of the National Science and Technology Progress Award after an 8-year period.
In recent years, water-saving and drought-resistant rice has cultivated dozens of new varieties that adapt to the climatic environment in many places. In Shanghai, the most famous variety of water-saving and drought-resistant rice is "August Incense". This is a variety tailored to the land resources of Shanghai.
Due to the limited cultivated land in Shanghai, in order to ensure the yield, the biggest advantage of August Xiang is to shorten the harvest time of traditional rice by two months. The rice harvest that was originally harvested in October can be "fragrant" in August, and the two months saved can be saved by either waiting for a longer round of secondary harvesting, or planting other cash crops. No matter how it is chosen, it has achieved the increase in the value of farmland.
Even more revolutionary, it changed the way rice has been grown for thousands of years. Farmers who grow water-saving and drought-resistant rice no longer have to plant seedlings, cultivate land and irrigate as in the past, but can simply sow seeds before the rainy season. Moreover, because of the reduction of irrigation, the amount of fertilizer taken away during water loss is also reduced, and the cultivation of water-saving and drought-resistant rice does not have to be fertilized as frequently as in the past, and the methane emissions of farmland are greatly reduced.
"Going back to the roots, we are all the children of farmers. One of the driving forces of our research and development is to reduce the burden of labor on some farmers. Raleigh Jun said.
Science never stops. "There are still new problems waiting to be solved, and in extremely hot weather like this summer, how to further optimize our drought-resistant varieties is the next problem we have to think about." Raleigh Jun said.
Two exotic trials
After solving one problem after another in the domestic environment, China's seeds went to the world.
In Botswana, however, the trial planting of drought-resistant rice was not a one-time success.
"That bag of seeds traveled from Shanghai to Gaborone for more than a month." Liu Zaochang remembered. Because of the epidemic, global logistics are delayed, and the express delivery that can be reached in five or six days has taken a long turnaround to reach Africa. After a series of procedures such as customs clearance, quarantine, and obtaining an import license, it has been two months since the seeds were received.
The late arrival of seeds is the most direct reason for the failure of the first year of trial planting. Seeds from China only start sowing between December and January, missing the best planting season in Botswana.
"In the first trial planting, although the seedlings were growing very well, they did not start to pump a little bit until March and April, when the temperature in Botswana was already very low, and the temperature at night was below 10 degrees Celsius." Liu Zaochang said.
Although the first pilot failed, the project continued. Liu Studied Botswana's meteorological data in depth, analyzed the local heat and rainfall data, and finally concluded that the second test must be sown in advance until October or November to ensure that the next April, Botswana's winter arrival, will ripen.
After the time problem was solved, new challenges emerged. The geological conditions of Botswana's land are uneven, and some areas are heavily desertified. The ideal state is to sow seeds before it rains, and immediately after the seeds are planted, there is rainwater for irrigation to promote the emergence of rice seedlings.
However, in the second test, after the seeds were sown in the test field, there was a continuous drought in the local area, and there was no rain for many days. Finally, when it rained, because the soil was heavily sandy, the surface layer was hard, and it was easy to freeze as soon as the sun shone. Nan Gengshu remembered that after the first sowing, he waited left and right, and finally sprouted after more than ten days.
"Theoretically, germination should have been seen in 5 to 7 days, but at that time we were unable to keep the soil moist before germination so that the seedlings could drill out of the ground. Now it seems that some experience has been accumulated. Nan Gengjiao said.
The trial planting area covers an area of about five or six acres, and the planting team is mainly composed of local farmers and students from agricultural universities. But Nan Gengshu ran to the rice field every three or five minutes, wanting to see the growth with his own eyes.
He had thought that the initial period of waiting for germination was the most painful period of time, but he later found that there were things to worry about at each stage. Soil environment, temperature, humidity, pests and diseases... Errors can occur in any one link.
"Because in the experiment, every link cannot be missed, and we have to observe how it is in the local natural environment and whether it can survive." Nan Gengshu felt that there was always a string in his heart.
"He often sends me pictures and videos on WeChat, and sometimes discusses the growth trend to see if there is any disease or pest." Liu Zaochang remembered that during that time, after a time difference of 6 hours, he always received news from Nan Gengshu from the other side of the earth at night. Accompanied by "distance teaching", Liu Zaochang found that the rice in the Botswana field "grew very strong", and the knotting and filling were smooth.
In April, the land of Botswana saw a bumper harvest of drought-resistant rice. Before the celebration ceremony, how to threshing became a new problem. Botswana, which has just started growing rice, has not yet had time to follow up on agricultural equipment.
Eventually, Mr. Liu sent a small household rice mill to Botswana. "It was available on Taobao, and now the logistics have resumed, and they received it in less than two weeks."
At the ceremony site, Nan Gengshu contributed from his home rice cooker, and the rice was fragrant in the field. Botswana, who usually eat brown rice, are full of praise for rice from China. Everyone even brought home the harvested straw as a souvenir.
Nan Gengzhi felt a little moved, "Decades later, Botswana people talk about eating rice every day, and they can remember that it is seeds from China that grow, so all my efforts today are worth it." ”
Pre-harvest view of water-saving and drought-resistant rice WDR73 demonstration field in Uganda (courtesy of interviewee)
More stories in the future
After the successful trial planting, Botswana is looking forward to a bumper rice harvest every year, which requires the long-term efforts of more people.
Despite the successful experience, there are still many planting techniques that need to be accumulated - how to soak seeds, apply medicines, deworm... To teach people to fish, it is also necessary to teach people to fish. Nan Plans to invite domestic experts to Botswana. "We hope that in October this year, we can invite domestic experts to participate in this season's trial and provide on-site guidance."
Agriculture is not a quick success, and planting from experimentation to promotion is not an overnight achievement. In the 1970s, East Asian agricultural experts tried to grow rice in Botswana, but a year or two later, with the end of the project, the planting also came to an end.
"If our varieties want to be truly promoted in other countries, they must first be approved by the local government. The process of trial planting is also to prepare for approval. Liu Zaochang introduced. Such validations are not instantaneous, and usually require three or five years of repeated seed trials and tests, in cooperation with local agricultural and animal husbandry research institutions, to reach a final conclusion.
When Botswana's first successful trial was successful, the rice project in Uganda, another African cooperation country at hand, had entered the approval and promotion phase.
Technicians patrol the field to inspect the growth trend (photo provided by the interviewee)
"We have thousands of acres of trial planting area in Ucanda every year." Liu Zaochang introduced. In Uganda, his partner is Dr. Jimmy Lamo from Uganda's National Institute of Agricultural and Livestock Research (NATIONAL ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES).
In Uganda, Rameau said, China is far away but not unfamiliar. Roads and bridges built in China, goods produced in China, can be found everywhere in this country. So, three years ago, when Chinese rice seeds appeared in the planting options, Ugandan farmers were more than happy to try, "Commodities from China, always rich in variety, good quality and low price, are very popular in Uganda." This has left a good impression on many Ugandans, and I think this is one of the reasons why the promotion of Chinese rice seeds has been very smooth. ”
The more important reason is that Chinese rice has brought them considerable economic returns. According to Jimmy Ramo, Ugandan farmers usually keep 10% of their own rice to eat, and the remaining 90% is sold. Rice can be sold for up to US$ 1.30 per kilogram. The results of a recent blind test showed that drought-tolerant rice varieties from China were the most popular of the 5 varieties tested.
"It's delicious and tastes sweet and soft." Rameau said. To help Ugandan farmers better grow drought-resistant rice, Jimmy Ramo regularly talks to them about the planting process. Local farmers told him that Chinese rice seeds are very productive because of the short maturity period, and farmers can plant rice twice a year. Moreover, Chinese rice varieties have high vitality, uniform maturity, strong stems, resistance to lodging, and also have the advantage of resisting common pests and diseases.
As a rice breeding expert with 24 years of experience in variety development, Rameau believes that China-Africa agricultural cooperation has many advantages. Beginning in 2014, Uganda has secured more than 600 categories from China through a green super rice project implemented in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute, and within a few years, three Chinese rice varieties have entered the approval process.
"They have a lot of ideas, not only to introduce our varieties, but also to try to develop new varieties that are suitable for the local area on the basis of Chinese seeds." Liu Zaochang said.
At present, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and other countries have seeds from China in the promotion and approval stage.
On 20 August, good news came from Burundi. After several rounds of local regional tests and new variety tests, WDR73, a low-carbon emission water-saving and drought-resistant rice variety from Shanghai, has finally obtained variety approval. This means that there is one more country where the cultivation of drought-resistant rice can be officially launched.
Improving rice cultivation techniques and building the resilience of food systems are important measures to ensure food security. Now, water-saving and drought-resistant rice from China is contributing to the solution of the world's food problems.
In order to better promote and cultivate seeds in Africa, there are also China-Africa cooperation projects, which plan to establish hybrid seed production bases and train local scientists in Africa. Mr. Liu mentored Modinat Adekoya, a doctoral student from Nigeria.
After completing his doctoral thesis at the Shanghai Agricultural Biogenetic Center, Modinath returned to Nigeria and entered the university to teach more people the rice cultivation techniques he learned in China.
Planting Chinese seeds on African soil will have more new stories in the future.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Wang Xiao Text Editor: Wang Xiao
6月27日，博茨瓦纳代总统措霍瓦内（前中）在哈博罗内收割中国节水耐旱稻。新华社发（策基索特巴洛摄） Source: Author: Li Chuyue