Rice is harvested by local farmers in the enormous rice fields of Mahitsy, Madagascar. They grab in one hand the roots of mature crops and skilfully cut them with a faucet in the other. Then they lift the plants up and continuously slap them on the ground so that mature grains fall one by one. This lovely rich country is full of the joy of the harvest with the sound of “bang,bang.”
These crops are Chinese hybrid rice. The country, with 80% of its population living in agriculture and two-thirds of its arable area cultivating rice, was still looking for a solution to its low yield on native rice before its introduction in Madagascar.
Fanomezantsoa Agriculture Minister Lucien Ranarivelo once recognized the need of quality seeds and technical training as two barriers for rice plantation in the country. A hybrid rice demonstration center for Madagascar was created in August 2007 as part of the solution. It was carried out by the China Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and was one of China’s 10 key land demonstration areas for African countries. The Chinese Government made a real effort to deliver on its serious vows during the 2006 China-Africa Cooperation Forum.
Madagascar is the largest island in Africa and the fourth largest island in the world, lying to the east of the African continent and to the west of the Indian Ocean. Its tropical rainforest environment lies on its southern coast, its center tropical mountainous climate and the tropical steppe climate to the west. Such various weather patterns differ greatly from the climate of China. How can Madagascar thrive Chinese hybrid rice? In the prologue of his work Extraordinary Rice (Feichangdao), Yuan Longping suggested the answer “‘Not unaltered is the actual Tao.’ Each strain of hybrid rice must also be adapted to its specific living habitat. In all sorts of environments there is no rice strain that can grow. New rice strains will always need innovation and adjustment to adapt to the new environment.”
Hu Yuefang, Chinese expert from the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has spent 10 years in most rice growing places in Madagascar in order to find high yield seeds which can grow in Madagascar’s many climates and to locate the hybrid rice planting. Hu and his team have successfully cultivated three high-profile hybrid rice strains which fit local climates and soil conditions. Under the guidance of Academic Yuan Longping. The strains are stronger resistant to illnesses and insects, with increased production potential, and were immediately accepted by the local authorities, which is a key step towards the location of hybrid rice in Madagascar.
“It’s better to teach someone how to fish than to give him fish.” In order for the population of Madagascar to grow localized hybrid rice, the Chinese project team engaged numerous local people in seeding, transplantation, weeding, and harvesting processes. Hu Yuefang said, “A thorough and science-based training method is vital. In every stage, we show them what to do and pay tremendous attention to detail.” In this attitude, the Chinese professionals rode the test fields on motorcycles and trucks daily for the local tutor on the ground.
Yuan Longping gave a brief speech at the opening ceremony of the first Forum on Chinese African Cooperative Agriculture on 9 December 2019, when he stated that Madagascar’s plantation (hybrid rice) area reached 20,000 hectares and averaged yields per hectare 8 tons (100 to 300 percent higher than local varieties). Madagascar now has the largest hybrid rice farming area in Africa with the highest yields. It is also the first African country to establish a complete industrial rice manufacturing chain.
Madagascar’s success with hybrid rice has also been a story of better livelihood for many Madagascans. The anecdote was told by Njala, a local employee at Mahitsy Hybrid Rice High-Yield Demonstration Training Base: “I grew a lot of hybrid rice on my own field, and it was really good harvest. For 10 years I’ve been working with the company, and my income continues to grow. Over the years, I’ve collected some money and started building a new house.” After training courses and knowledge exchange workshops Randall, the hybrid rice man in Alafah Village, Ambatondrazaka, successfully planted hybrid rice. He moved to a red brick house, appreciated by other villages, with the money he gave. It was difficult to realize that he and his family huddled in a small stuffed hut only a few years before. Randall planted a hectare of hybrid rice in 2010, harvesting more than 7 tons of rice, three times the output of local rice. His plantation acreage had exceeded 20 hectares by the end of 2014. More than 20 farmers in the same hamlet followed him to grow hybrid rice to over 200 hectares.
“Thanks to a seed, Madagascar’s inhabitants have loaded their rice bags and wallets.” Rice is considered the nicest gift for guests in Madagascar nowadays. In August 2017, Sahuri, Director-General of the Plant Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture of Madagascar and his entourage presented the newly launched Madagascan banknote with a bunch of hybrid rice emblazoned on its back to Yuan Longping, father of hybrid rice.
“For the inhabitants of Madagascar, rice is the most important food crop. The plantation area of Chinese hybrid rice is rising in Madagascar. The people of Madagascar are no longer hungry! The people of Madagascar have picked rice as their new pattern on our banknotes to thank you.” Sahuri said with arousal.
In Madagascar, “hybrid rice” researchers continue to work hard today. The COVID pandemic was not an obstacle to their endeavors. In May 2019, the Chinese National Hybrid Rice R&D Center’s only overseas branch was set up in Madagascar. At the end of the same year, the China-FAO South-South Cooperation Program Madagascar Project was launched. There is still a Chinese-African affinity behind hybrid rice not only in Madagascar, but in Cameroon, Burundi, Senegal and everywhere in Africa.