In recent days, Chinese agricultural technician Yang Xiugang has been receiving messages from Muhammad Usman, one of his apprentices in Nigeria, asking for farming advice. Over the past few years, Yang has helped triple rice yields in parts of the African country.

Yang hails from Cengong county in Southwest China's Guizhou province, a major national hub for rice seed production. His career in the sector began in 1998 when the deputy general manager of the county's seed company arrived in his town to develop the industry. Yang seized the opportunity to learn hybrid rice production techniques.

After mastering the skills, he was hired by the company as a technician. In the years that followed, he was sent to several townships across the county to promote hybrid rice breeding.

In 2013, the county's seed company partnered with a company in Central China's Hunan province, which planned to send technicians overseas to promote hybrid rice. Recommended by his employer, Yang embarked on a mission to share agricultural technology abroad.

Over the past decade, the 59-year-old has worked in several countries, including Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria and The Gambia. He has developed hybrid rice varieties adapted to local conditions and provided hands-on technical guidance to local farmers.

Yang has been based in Jigawa State, Nigeria, since early 2021.

"The climate there is completely different from that in China. Temperatures swing sharply between day and night. Seedlings grow very fast — producing a new leaf every three days, compared with four or five days in Cengong," he says.

Daytime temperatures in Nigeria can reach 38-39 C, but at night, they drop to around 10-15 C, Yang adds.

Faced with these conditions, Yang set aside his experience in China and started from scratch to understand the local planting cycle. He spent long days in the fields, observing rice growth and recording temperature, humidity and seedling development.

After more than two years of research, he finally mastered the local growing patterns.

Thanks to his expertise, average rice yields rose from about 3,000 kilograms per hectare in 2021 to between 9,750 and 10,500 kg per hectare by 2025.

"Local traditional varieties had poor lodging resistance and would collapse across large areas during wind and rain. Coupled with weak management, fields often had more weeds than rice, so yields were naturally low," Yang says.

After identifying these problems, he introduced improved varieties and a full set of cultivation practices. Local farmers frequently visited his demonstration base, where he explained every step in detail.

So far, Yang has trained 12 local apprentices in Nigeria, including Usman, who has become a skilled farmer.

Usman began learning from Yang in 2023. He recalls that local rice yields were low and living costs were high.

"Over the past two years, I have systematically learned seedling cultivation, pest control and other skills," Usman says.

"In the future, I will pass on the hybrid rice techniques I've learned to more people."

The spread of hybrid rice has even changed local diets near the planting base, shifting villagers' staple food from coarse grains to rice.

This April, Yang will return to Nigeria. He hopes to expand the local hybrid rice planting area to 20,000 hectares before he retires.