Digital Agri Expo opens up vista of sustainable Sino-Pak agriculture cooperation

ISLAMABAD: First World Expo on Digital Agriculture held in Weifang, China’s Shandong province has opened up new vista for sustainable Sino-Pak agriculture cooperation, said Dr Hussain Ahmad Janjua, Principal, Attaur Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB), National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST).

“Undoubtedly, the Smart Agriculture Expo has opened up a brand-new path for sustainable agriculture worldwide in the future,” , he said in an interview with the China Economic Net (CEN).

At the just-concluded first World Expo, NUST showcased agricultural technologies including cotton virus prevention and control, plant vaccines, climate change monitoring equipment, agricultural product transportation and preservation, looking forward to all-round and in-depth cooperation with Chinese agricultural enterprises and universities.

“We have signed a contract with Weifang Engineering Vocational College, carrying out cooperation on crop fertilizers, such as the application of ecological organic fertilizers in the fields,” Dr Janjua said, “in addition, we have just visited Qingzhou Jiuzhou Farm Vegetable Cooperative, which impressed me greatly. We are very interested in their vegetable greenhouse technology.

A series of agricultural APP they developed for monitoring the real-time status of the field is also a technology that we are very happy to apply in Pakistan, by which researchers and farmers can accurately monitor the biotic and abiotic stress on plants.”

“For agricultural by-product processing, wheat gene editing, soil microbiology, rice planting and processing, etc., all of which NUST is currently researching, but has not yet cooperated with China.

To my way of thinking, these are promising fields.” Dr Janjua told the reporter that how to deal with climate change in the agricultural field is a hot issue that is of great concern to the whole world and China has made great achievements in this regard. “If we can cooperate with our friends in smart agriculture to tackle climate change, it will be so meaningful.”

2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 10th anniversary of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. On this occasion, Dr Janjua expressed his vision for the future, “Many of our researchers and students are conducting research in China related to sustainable agriculture, smart agriculture and the like.

The day before yesterday I visited the Weifang National Comprehensive Pilot Agriculture Zone, where many university professors are working closely with agricultural enterprises to apply their own scientific research results, such as preservatives and plant vaccines, to the field directly, by which inspires me a lot. Both being great agricultural countries, we should contribute to the future of sustainable agriculture hand in hand.”

The three-day 2023 World Expo on Digital Agriculture opened on April 25, attracting a total of 118 domestic exhibitors, as well as 40 enterprises and organizations from 22 countries including agricultural developed countries-Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan, the United States, Australia, and ASEAN and Shanghai Cooperation Organization.