Beijing: Hafiz Muhammad Usman, a post-doctoral fellow at Guizhou University, feels grateful to be able to introduce the advanced agricultural technology he learned in China to his native Pakistan.
Since 2017, Guizhou University has launched the “Village Head Ph.D.” program, inviting doctoral students, graduate students and post-graduate students to participate in agriculture and apply their scientific research achievements to the development of agriculture in rural areas, especially in their hometowns. .
Usman came to study in China in 2017 and received his PhD from Huazhong Agricultural University in central China’s Hubei Province. In 2023, he decided to do post-doctoral research at Guizhou University and now works as a mushroom specialist in the Department of Plant Protection.
The main research conducted by the College of Agriculture of Guizhou University is the development of green pesticides, the systematic control of plant diseases and pests, and the quality and safety management of agricultural products.
Pepper is one of the main agricultural products in Guizhou. In the past few years, pepper production has been affected by the development of fungicide resistance in plant pathogens.
Usman and other members of the research team took samples across the province and conducted experiments to find effective chemical alternatives to control drug-resistant fungal populations and increase pepper yields.
He returned to Pakistan for winter vacation in January this year. He returned home for a month and a half and visited local agricultural units and several villages. Farmers are learning that farmers cannot master technology to combat plant diseases and pests.
He then held three workshops with the support of local agricultural research institutes and shared sustainable methods against plant diseases with more than 500 local farmers.
Apart from the workshops, he visits the fields and teaches the farmers how to identify pests and diseases, as well as how to prepare the right pesticides.
Maqsood Ahmed, a PhD student and member of Guizhou University’s Ph.D Village Head Program, comes from Pakistan’s main agricultural province, mainly producing grains and fruits such as maize, wheat, mangoes and bananas.
During his winter break, Ahmed visited an agricultural farm in his hometown and learned about issues affecting local agricultural development.
Organized several workshops in local universities to share advanced technology learned in China with teachers and students in Pakistan. Ahmed has developed pest management methods suitable for local crops.
These methods, including biological control, the use of pheromone traps and insecticides, microbial pesticides, natural predators and beneficial insects, focus on environmentally sustainable pest management, reducing the use of synthetic chemicals and reducing damage, Ahmed said. target organisms and ecological systems.
So far, more than 16,000 teachers and students of Guizhou University, which has played a key role in the province’s poverty reduction efforts, have participated in the program.
Pakistan academics sow seeds of cross-border agricultural cooperation
