PHOTO: REUTERS
“Agriculture in Pakistan still relies heavily on manpower and my goal is to promote advanced agricultural technologies and hybrid rice to improve rice production and alleviate the burden of farmers,” a young Chinese agronomist, Dai Yingnan, said.
Dai has been promoting the plantation of hybrid rice in Pakistan for three years.
Born in a village of Liaoning province in northeast China, Dai grew corn and rice with his parents when he was young and possesses a deep understanding of the hardship of farmers.
“Following the advice of my teacher, I chose to learn agronomy at Hunan Agriculture University,” Dai told the China Economic Net on Saturday. “Since few students would opt for this major, which had strong links to farming, it became a safer choice for me to go to this university.”
Dai regretted his choice for a long time because he was of the view that he would become a farmer after receiving four-year education in college.
The turning point appeared when Dai, as a representative of his university, had an opportunity to talk to Yuan Longping, who is known as the father of hybrid rice.
“When I was confused about the prospect of agronomy, the esteemed man told me that agriculture was the foundation of a country,” he said. “At the same time, it is a slow growing industry that demands a lot of time and people devoted to it.”
Following his graduation in 2017, Dai accepted an offer at Yuan Longping High-Tech Agriculture Company and was later sent to Pakistan to promote hybrid rice.
Earlier in his career, Dai never thought he would love the work until he got stranded at home for almost half a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I really miss the farmlands in Pakistan,” Dai said. According to him, carrying out research and promoting the plantation of hybrid rice in Pakistan was not an easy task.
Out of thousands of seeds, Dai had to select the one which was most suitable for the local environment. This task itself demanded years of experience.
One of the best ways to find the right seed was to plant hybrid rice in test fields, observe it carefully and record details of the growing process from sowing and blooming to final harvest.
“One missing or false record would lead to failure of the experiment and that usually wastes at least half a year,” he said. Pakistan’s torrid weather was another big challenge for the young boy as temperature could reach nearly 50 degrees in summer.
During harvest every year, the yield of hybrid rice is apparently higher than the locally grown rice and sometimes even twice by comparison, Dai said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2020.
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