African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1118: Chapter 127: Hybrid Rice

Ultimately, France, out of consideration for its interests, had no choice but to yield to the oppressive power of Germany and ceded French Gabon to Germany.

At this time, Germany surpassed France in various aspects, especially in industrial data and military strength, putting France at a disadvantage in negotiations from the beginning. However, France did not come away empty-handed from the Moroccan crisis.

Germany’s aggressive stance further heightened British vigilance towards Germany and improved their attitude towards France.

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August 2, 1911.

West Coast Province, Luanda City Agricultural Research Institute.

Located to the northeast of Luanda City, the Luanda City Agricultural Research Institute possesses large tracts of introduced crop experimental fields and is one of the core western agricultural research institutions established by East Africa in 1893.

Its important role is to introduce agricultural varieties from the South Atlantic region and supplement East Africa’s quality agricultural varieties through research and demonstration.

Today is the harvest day for rice in the 0273 experimental field at the Luanda City Agricultural Research Institute. Many members of the institute have gathered to assess the agricultural varieties in this experimental field.

Director Andre and many researchers took to the field themselves, harvesting bit by bit with sickles. Due to the small planting area, they quickly completed the subsequent work.

After threshing was completed, Andre excitedly said, ”Scale it!”

Soon, the results came out.

”Professor Andre, the final calculated yield is about seventy-five kilograms per mu.”

Hearing this result, Andre sighed, ”As expected, it still didn’t meet our expectations, but it’s passable.”

Kelder, an intern who had just joined the institute, asked, ”He Bo, this rice variety seems quite different from the rice varieties we usually plant.”

A researcher named He Bo nodded and said, ”Yes, you’ve just joined, so you might not know. This variety of rice is currently only being researched by our institute in East Africa and is different from all the rice varieties currently widely planted in East Africa.”

Kelder asked, ”Is it a new variety introduced from the Far East?”

”No, it’s not,” He Bo shook his head and then solemnly said, ”This rice variety is of great significance. Professor Andre places so much importance on it because this rice, which we call West African cultivated rice, originates from West Africa, not Asia.”

It is well known that East Africa is a country primarily focused on rice cultivation, with rice planting areas surpassing many other crops, making it currently the largest staple food in East Africa. The rice varieties planted in East Africa now are almost all introduced from Asia.

Andre, hearing the exchange between the two students, took the opportunity to earnestly explain: ”He Bo is correct. These rice varieties were collected from thirteen locations in West Africa, breaking our previous understanding of rice varieties.”

”In the past, all our rice varieties were introduced from Asia, especially the Far East Empire. Due to early research and cognitive deficiencies, as well as a lack of international exchange, mainstream agriculture in our country once believed that Africa had no native rice varieties.”

”However, in 1897, during an agricultural species collection activity organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, our researchers discovered this African native rice variety, planted by the local Black people, for the first time in the Niger River basin of West Africa.”

Most of the rice varieties collected from West Africa, besides the wild short-arm wild rice, are glabrous rice, also known as African rice varieties, in contrast to the Asian rice varieties originating from the Far East Empire.

Andre continued, ”Through research and demonstration, we found that the glabrous rice in the West African region might originate from the wild short-arm wild rice, as the two share many similarities, with glabrous rice retaining many primitive traits of the short-arm wild rice.”

”However, due to various reasons, this African native rice variety struggles to compete with Asian rice in yield and lacks the variety discovered in Asian rice. We have found only two not significantly distinguished glabrous rice varieties that may differentiate in the future.”

The so-called various reasons fundamentally lie in the backward agricultural technology development among Black people. It takes, for example, glabrous rice and Asian rice, which the Far East Empire started cultivating thousands of years ago, whereas the history of glabrous rice may only be two to three thousand years old.”

Additionally, African Blacks themselves are not adept at farming, making the Niger River basin, the native region for glabrous rice, minimally cultivated, with rough methods. In the absence of artificial selection, the yield of glabrous rice naturally struggles to compete with Asian rice.

Currently, the Asian rice planted in East Africa typically yields over one hundred seventy kilograms, reaching a record of four hundred thirty-two kilograms in experimental fields.

In contrast, the glabrous rice experimental field only yields a mere seventy-five kilograms, demonstrating a significant gap. Without the excellent conditions and careful attention from the Luanda City Agricultural Research Institute, the yield would be even lower.

Hence, Kelder raised his question, ”Professor Andre, since this rice yields far less than the Asian rice we are currently cultivating, what is the significance of our research on it?”

Professor Andre did not express displeasure at the student’s question; instead, he proudly said, ”For our agricultural research institute, increasing species yield and breeding superior varieties is essential. But, what defines a superior variety is much more complex. Take glabrous rice, for instance. I knew its yield was low before I started planting it, so I had already mentally prepared myself.”

”So, what am I focusing on? The answer lies in other characteristics of glabrous rice. As a local rice variety cultivated by West African Blacks, glabrous rice most likely evolved from short-arm wild rice.”

”Therefore, glabrous rice naturally suits the climatic characteristics of the West African region. If you have a solid understanding of geography, you should know that West Africa’s climate is similar to that of many regions in East Africa, characterized by the tropical savanna climate.”

”Moreover, as a continent, West Africa shares essential similarities with our country in terms of species evolution and diversity. This involves the development of stronger resistance to local endemic pests and climate by glabrous rice under long-term cultivation on the African Continent.”

He Bo continued to ask, ”But how should the research on this variety be converted into practical application results?”

Andre said, ”The concerns you raise are legitimate; however, I can divulge a piece of knowledge that isn’t covered at your university—that is rice hybridization technology. This technology involves cross-breeding two rice varieties, acquiring advantages from both varieties, and cultivating a more advantageous rice variety. The Mbeya Rice Research Center currently has made preliminary progress.”

”If the hybrid rice technology breakthrough occurs at the Mbeya Rice Research Center, then our institute’s glabrous rice will no longer be a redundant item. In the future, we can leverage hybrid technology to combine the strengths of glabrous rice with other rice varieties, transferring the advantages of glabrous rice to new rice varieties.”

”The drought resistance and some pest resistance features of glabrous rice can then be applied to our country’s future rice production.”

East Africa is actually the current world center for rice research. Among the world’s powerful countries, only East Africa and Japan consume rice as a staple food.

Compared to East Africa, Japan finds itself relatively behind. Plus, Japan’s recent frantic military expansion further prevents it from focusing on other fields, hence East Africa becoming the most advanced country in the world for research into rice cultivation technology.

And hybrid rice is one of the primary agricultural research projects East Africa is tackling at the current stage, though research into hybrid rice requires favorable timing, location, and human cooperation, making short-term results difficult. Research into hybrid rice projects began in East Africa in the 1990s, and has only been underway for a little over a decade.

This is still under the guidance of Ernst, who applied ”modest” guidance to East African science based on memories left over from high school biology from a previous life. However, relentless efforts have paid off; after establishing the correct research direction, the Mbeya Rice Research Center in East Africa was the first to achieve success.