Gambian farmer pays tribute to 'father of hybrid rice'

As rain fell, Musa Darboe, a Gambian farmer, stood before the grave of the late Chinese scientist Yuan Longping in Changsha, Hunan province, to pay his respects to the "father of hybrid rice".

He laid down newly harvested rice from his farm during Wednesday's visit and presented a painting of harvesters working in rice fields.

"Professor Yuan, your seeds have taken root in Gambia. We are no longer hungry," Darboe said. "Just like you said, people are like seeds, and one must strive to be a good seed."

Darboe, whose farm was the first in Gambia to use agricultural machinery, learned about hybrid rice technology from Yuan's team.

The farmer recalled Yuan's advice: "Farming requires down-to-earth effort; a single seed can change the world." They are words that Darboe believes are becoming a reality in his homeland.

Last year, Darboe entrusted Hunan Daily reporters to deliver rice to his mentor's resting place. This year, he traveled 12,000 kilometers to Hunan to make a more sincere tribute.

"It was very emotional for me to pay tribute to Yuan, because he was the one helping to feed the whole world," he told China Daily. "And now I have the responsibility to help realize his dream of making sure the whole world has hybrid rice.

"We all have to try in our own way to make sure hybrid rice is grown around the world, because it is only through hybrid rice that we can feed the whole world," he added.

Yuan was a pioneering Chinese scientist whose work in developing high-yield hybrid rice varieties substantially increased global food security.

China's self-developed hybrid rice has fed around 80 million Chinese and 40 million to 50 million more people abroad every year, according to a 2023 seminar to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the hybrid rice strain. Hybrid rice has been planted in a total area of 600 million hectares across China, increasing the rice yield by more than an estimated 800 million metric tons.

Gambia used to rely heavily on imported rice, due to outdated agricultural technology, low mechanization levels and small-scale rice cultivation.

In 2018, following his father's death, Darboe returned to his African home from the United States to manage the family farm.

"At the beginning, I couldn't find anyone to teach us how," Darboe recalled. In the first year, he planted only three hectares of rice, harvesting with outdated methods like "threshing grain with oil drums". His first harvest coincided with heavy rainfall, drowning the rice. He considered abandoning the farm and moving back to the US.

Fortunately, Huang Zhi and his team of experts from Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Co arrived in Gambia. They shared their techniques, from plowing and planting to harvesting and processing.

When the first rice transplanter entered the farm, Darboe marveled at it, recalling that "this was a miracle my father's generation wouldn't have dared to dream of".

The transition from manual threshing to mechanization saw yields surge to an average of 7 tons per hectare — two to three times the average local yield. Over the next five years, Darboe's farm expanded from three hectares to 100.

The land in Gambia "is very fertile, but we lack technology and equipment", Darboe said. As he sees it, partnerships with China are beginning to turn that situation around.

Zhu Youfang contributed to this story.