Summer sunlight slanted into the ecological sheep breeding base in Xinfang Village, Youyu County, in northern China's Shanxi Province, bleaching the flock's wool white. A young man from Ghana in West Africa, wearing a white lab coat, watched the sheep lower their heads to feed and said softly in halting Chinese, "Take your time, little sheeps."
Osman and his colleagues weigh, group and tag the sheep used in the experiment.
The young man was Osman, a Ghanaian doctoral exchange student from Shanxi Agricultural University. He and his research teamtraveled to the base to collect experimental data. Inside the pens, yellow-and-blue partitions divided the area into separate experimental units, where they secured the sheep and completed the day's weighing, grouping and tagging.
CHN Energy Longyuan Power originally helped build the ecological sheep breeding base to upgrade the county's agricultural industry through standardized breeding facilities. Yet no one expected that the base would not only boost local incomes, but also attract top research teams from across China and the attention of international peers.
After tagging, Osman moved to the feeding trough and gently held a sheep's head to adjust its feeding position. His research focuses on restructuring rumen fermentation patterns to improve the efficiency of methane reduction in livestock production.
The base is equipped with experimental pens, partitioned feeding troughs and independent drinking-water systems, enabling smooth implementation of group feeding and precise observation of different groups. It has essentially become an open laboratory rooted in the countryside. In the operations building nearby, real-time experimental data streamed across computer screens.
The base is currently operating a feeding model known as a high-level win-win approach. By adjusting the proportions of forage such as Chinese wildrye, alfalfa and silage corn, the model aims to promote healthy growth in meat sheep while minimizing methane emissions per kilogram of lamb. Osman's research focuses on decoding how various microbial-active substances "direct" rumen activity enabling better feed conversion and lower methane emissions.
Colleagues at the base often joke that Osman is "chatting" to the sheep. He patiently watches the condition and responses of every experimental sheep and carefully records data on feeding, defecation and other indicators. Sometimes, when he gets the results he wants, he will clap and say, "Yes, that's it!"
Osman checks the feeding condition of the experimental sheep.
Osman systematically studied animal science and animal nutrition during both his undergraduate and master's studies. But when he actually arrived at the breeding base, he was still deeply impressed. "In my hometown, feed processing is an scattered sideline activity. But here, planting, livestock raising and feed production are all part of one integrated chain." During breaks, he often squats on the ground, using alfalfa stems to draw diagrams as he explains the differences between livestock farming between China and Ghana. He sees China's rural revitalization and targeted poverty alleviation as a well-structured system that works and other countries can learn from. What he wants to do is taking these experiences back to Ghana.
As evening fell, Osman leaned against the gate of the sheep pens and phoned home. On the screen, his family crowded together, curiously looking at the pens and processing buildings behind him. He excitedly explained what he was doing in his native language, occasionally sprinkling a few Chinese words with imperfect pronunciation, drewing laughter from the other end of the call.
After hanging up, Osman stood alone for a long while, watching the sunset. Like his hometown, this place also has vast expanses of land with kind and simple people. What is different is that here, he is testing a set of technologies that he hopes to one day take back to Africa. "My long-term goal is to adapt and implement this integrated feed and standardized breeding model in Ghana's livestock industry after I return home," Osman said earnestly. He said he did not want to be merely a researcher, but rather someone who could build a bridge, connecting China's experience and technologies with Ghana's practical needs.
Late at night, the lights at the breeding base went out one by one. After a final check, Osman began planning the next day's work. In this small village in northwestern Shanxi, young people from China and Africa are jointly contributing their share to global poverty reduction and sustainable development, building brdges—between fields and future, between countries and what they call home.
