“Think Globally, Act Locally”: Pak Young Scientists Developing Local Intercropping Techs with Sino Experience to Save Oilseed Imports

Advertisement A team of young Pakistani agricultural scientists at the National Research Center of Intercropping (NRCI), the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) are researching on strip intercropping technologies with the hope to help their country shrink the import bill of food commodities especially soybean, which already is a huge burden on Pakistan’s economy. It’s remarkable that the ongoing work there originated from their collaboration with China, but has been optimized specially for Pakistan based on the country’s realities, which has been a shining model of Sino-Pak cooperation in both scientific research and educational exchange. Advertisement Since 2018, Dr. Muhammad Ali Raza, a post-doc who is graduated from Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU), China, has started to promote China’s maize-soybean strip intercropping technology in Pakistan with his professor Yang Wenyu’s support and guidance, which has received good response particularly from local industrialists and progressive farmers in the recent years. After years of hard work, he has become a productive agronomist and expert in intercropping research in Pakistan. In 2020, Dr. Muhammad Ali Raza who graduated from Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU) presents maize-soybean strip intercropping technology to local farmers. [Photo provided by Muhammad Ali Raza] Under the vision of the IUB Vice Chancellor Prof. Athar Mahboob, the National Research Center of Intercropping was inaugurated on August 11, 2021 to introduce strip intercropping technologies in Pakistan’s agriculture to improve crop yields and soil productivity. Now, Dr. Muhammad Ali Raza acts as the Director of the center, leading intercropping technology’s popularization in Pakistan. Advertisement To date, the center has already developed and optimized the Chinese maize-soybean strip intercropping technology according to local conditions, and conducted trials on the wheat-soybean strip intercropping. Moreover, to further enhance resource use efficiency and land productivity from the suga