GUIYANG, March 17 (Xinhua) -- In recent days, Chinese agricultural technician Yang Xiugang has been receiving messages from Muhammad Usman, one of his apprentices in Nigeria, asking for farming advice. Over the past few years, he has helped triple rice yields in parts of the African country.
Yang hails from Cengong County in southwest China's Guizhou Province -- a major national hub for rice seed production, with a history dating back to 1976.
His career in the sector began in 1998 when the deputy general manager of the county's seed company arrived in his town to develop seed production. Yang seized the opportunity to learn hybrid rice seed production techniques.
After mastering the skills, he was hired by the company as a technician. In the following years, he was sent to several townships across the county to promote hybrid rice breeding.
In 2013, the county's seed company partnered with Yuan's Seed Company Limited in central China's Hunan Province, which planned to send technicians overseas to promote hybrid rice. Recommended by the county's seed company, Yang embarked on his mission to share agricultural technology abroad.
Over the past decade, the 59-year-old has worked in several countries, including Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria and The Gambia. He has developed hybrid rice varieties adapted to local conditions and provided hands-on technical guidance to local farmers.
Yang has been based in Jigawa State, Nigeria, since early 2021.
"The climate there is completely different from that in China. The temperature swings sharply between day and night. Seedlings grow very fast -- a new leaf every three days, compared to four or five days back in Cengong," he said.
Daytime temperatures in Nigeria can reach 38 to 39 degrees Celsius, but at night, they drop to around 10 to 15 degrees Celsius, Yang added.
Faced with these conditions, Yang set aside his experience in China and started from scratch to understand the local planting cycle. He spent long days in the fields, observing rice growth and recording temperature, humidity, and seedling development.
After more than two years of research, he finally mastered the local growing patterns.
"The key to hybrid rice seed production is synchronizing the flowering periods of the male and female parent lines. If you don't plant in line with the local rhythm, their flowering times won't match, and seed production will fail," he noted.
When he first arrived in Nigeria, Yang brought dozens of hybrid rice varieties from China. After field trials, he selected two varieties that suited the local soil and climate. Working with his team, he then completed local adaptation and breeding, developing two exclusive hybrid rice strains with higher yields, greater resistance to lodging and improved disease tolerance.
Thanks to his expertise, average rice yields rose from about 200 kilograms per mu (about 0.067 hectare) in 2021 to between 650 and 700 kilograms per mu by 2025.
"Local traditional varieties had poor lodging resistance; they would collapse across large areas during wind and rain. Coupled with weak management, fields often had more weeds than rice, so yields were naturally low," Yang said.
After identifying these problems, he introduced improved varieties and a full set of cultivation practices. Local farmers frequently visited his demonstration base, and he showed and explained every step in detail.
So far, Yang has trained 12 local apprentices in Nigeria, including Usman, who has become a skilled farmer.
Usman began learning from Yang in 2023. He recalled that local rice yields were low and living costs were high.
"Over the past two years, I have systematically learned seedling cultivation, pest control and other skills," Usman said. "In the future, I will pass on the hybrid rice techniques I've learned to more people."
The spread of hybrid rice has even changed local diets near the planting base, shifting villagers' staple food from coarse grains to rice.
This April, Yang will return to Nigeria. He hopes to expand the local hybrid rice planting area to 20,000 hectares before he retires.
"I hope that by promoting hybrid rice, more local people can have enough to eat," Yang said.
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