from "a seed" to "africa's granary" -- madagascar president rajoelina inspects hybrid rice in changsha
2024-09-12
한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina
hunan daily omnimedia reporter li yi
on the morning of september 9, the sun was scorching. in changsha longping rice park, madagascar president rajoelina slowly paced along the ridge of the experimental field, stopping from time to time, his eyes fixed on the plump ears of rice.
“can this variety be grown in madagascar?” “what are the climate and soil requirements?” “how much can farmers grow on their own?”…
rajoelina asked very detailed questions, and after listening to the answers, he turned around and spoke in a low voice with the secretary of state.
hunan is the second stop of rajoelina's visit to china. on the afternoon of september 6, chinese president xi jinping met with rajoelina in beijing, who was in china to attend the beijing summit of the forum on china-africa cooperation. from september 7 to 9, rajoelina and his delegation visited hunan, with hunan hybrid rice being the focus of their inspection.
why focus on hybrid rice?
as early as 2007, madagascar and hunan became connected because of a "seed". that year, the madagascar hybrid rice demonstration center project was launched, and a group of hybrid rice experts dispatched by the hunan academy of agricultural sciences went to madagascar and have been rooted in the local area for more than ten years.
as of 2023, the cumulative promotion area of chinese hybrid rice in madagascar has reached more than 50,000 hectares, and madagascar has become the african country with the largest hybrid rice planting area and the highest yield. the pattern of chinese hybrid rice is also printed on the country's largest denomination 20,000 ariary banknote.
during the third china-africa economic and trade cooperation forum in june 2023, lakutosong philibert, former secretary general of the ministry of agriculture of madagascar, brought hybrid rice produced in africa to changsha and paid tribute at the tomb of yuan longping. "if there was no mr. yuan longping, there would be no hybrid rice in madagascar."
rajoelina came to hunan with greater hopes.
climbing up to the third-floor observation deck of the longping rice park, one can have a panoramic view of the thousand-acre rice fields. rajoelina pointed to the word "harvest" in the rice fields and said with a smile: "does it look like the shape of madagascar?" "it also looks like a pair of wings," said a member of the malaysian delegation.
in rajoelina's view, with the strong support of hybrid rice, madagascar's agriculture is ready to take off.
"during my conversation with president xi jinping, i emphasized the help that chinese hybrid rice has provided to the development of our country's agriculture," rajoelina recalled at the great hall of the people in beijing three days ago.
from beijing to hunan, rajoelina visited the birthplace of hybrid rice and explored the path to agricultural modernization. during his stay in hunan, rajoelina visited the hunan hybrid rice research center, longping rice park, and zoomlion agricultural machinery exhibition. he already had a blueprint in mind: "madagascar will accelerate the localization of hybrid rice and promote the planting of hybrid rice on a large scale across the country. in the future, we will build a veritable 'african granary'."
coming down from the observation deck, rajoelina walked briskly. he had something he had been looking forward to for a long time to do - witnessing the signing ceremony of the 2,000-hectare hybrid rice seed localization project and the hybrid rice promotion and development project in madagascar.
madagascar's secretary of state for food sovereignty razana mahaifa and yuan seed company chairman yuan ding'an signed the document, and rajoelina was the first to applaud behind them.
"we have high hopes for this project and plan to invest 25 million u.s. dollars in agricultural development." rajoelina said solemnly in his speech, "we hope that by localizing hybrid rice and promoting its large-scale planting, we can quickly increase food production, greatly improve farmers' lives, and accelerate the realization of agricultural modernization."
when leaving longping rice park, rajoelina looked back frequently and saw golden rice waves in the distance.
