CHANGSHA/NAIROBI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- In late May, before the fifth anniversary of the passing of China's prestigious agronomist Yuan Longping, his wife Deng Ze received a special gift -- a bag of hybrid rice produced in the West African country of Guinea.
Printed on the front of the rice bag were the national flags of China and Guinea. On the back, Guinean Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah handwrote a message in French: "This bag of rice is a symbol of cooperation between Guinea and China."
In late April, the prime minister met with Fang Zhihui and other members of an agricultural team from the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences at his office in the Guinean capital, Conakry.
He highly praised the achievements in promoting hybrid rice cultivation in the African country, before carefully penning the message on the rice bag and asking Fang to deliver it to Deng after returning to China.
The bag of rice grains embodies the tangible results of China's hybrid rice technology and agricultural assistance programs in Africa. Behind it lies the trust and appreciation the African people have shown toward China's hybrid rice expertise.
"With our technical assistance, Guinea has established the largest hybrid rice demonstration park in Africa so far," Fang told Xinhua. "Rice yields in the park have reached six tonnes per hectare per season, three times higher than those of traditional local varieties."
Guinea is far from the sole African country benefiting from China's hybrid rice expertise.
He Qiaosheng, head of the eighth Chinese agricultural expert team assisting Chad, said the team has selected more than 10 rice varieties suitable for local conditions.
"Chinese rice varieties have increased yields by more than 35 percent on average compared with local strains," He said. "Over the past two decades, they have helped produce an additional 1.2 million tonnes of grain. We have also trained nearly 3,000 local agricultural officials, technicians, and farmers."
In Ambela Village in Douguia District of Chad's Hadjer-Lamis Region, farmer Uthman adopted standardized high-yield rice farming methods after receiving training from Chinese experts.
Despite severe flooding in 2024, he harvested 7.84 tonnes of rice from one hectare of farmland, compared with just seven tonnes previously harvested from two hectares. The increased production brought him an additional income of 720,000 CFA francs (about 1,278 U.S. dollars).
At a harvest festival held in Midekin Village in Douguia District in October 2025, Mahamat Ahmad Alhabo, secretary-general of the Chadian Presidency, said the high-yield rice cultivation technologies introduced by Chinese experts demonstrate that Chad can produce enough rice not only to feed its own people and improve diets, but also to generate export revenue.
With support from a Chinese agricultural assistance team from Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd., a Chinese agricultural company named after Yuan, young Gambian farmer Musa Darboe systematically learned hybrid rice cultivation techniques.
Within just seven years, the rice yields on the farm he inherited from his father rose to seven tonnes per hectare, which was two to three times the local average. The farm's core planting area has now expanded to 100 hectares, while Musa also provides technical support and mechanized farming services to nearby farmers.
In June 2025, Musa traveled about 12,000 km to Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province, where he laid rice he had personally grown at Yuan's tomb.
"It was Yuan Longping's research achievements that gave us hope of escaping hunger and achieving food self-sufficiency," he said.
In July 2025, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations inspected the China-Madagascar Belt and Road Joint Hybrid Rice Laboratory, jointly established by the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center and the University of Antananarivo.
"The FAO attaches great importance to China's support for the development of hybrid rice in African countries," said Xiao Gui, a researcher at the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, noting that cooperation is now moving toward deeper partnerships.
The joint laboratory was inaugurated in December 2024 at the Mahitsy hybrid rice demonstration center in Madagascar.
Tiana Randriamihanta, the Malagasy project leader of the joint laboratory, said the facility currently has seven researchers and will focus on promoting hybrid rice research and education, increasing yields, and training more technical professionals to support Madagascar's hybrid rice industry.
Xiao said the joint laboratory will serve as a platform for at least three major areas of cooperation between China and Madagascar, including inviting Malagasy technicians to undergo systematic theoretical and practical training in China.
"Currently, hybrid rice seeds in Africa cost around 5.5 U.S. dollars per kg. Through localized seed production, we hope to reduce the price to four dollars or even lower," Xiao said. "In the future, we will apply the successful experience accumulated in Madagascar to cooperation projects with other African countries such as Ghana and Mozambique." ■
