A group of young Pakistani agricultural scientists at the Islamia University of Bahawalpur's (IUB) National Research Center of Intercropping (NRCI) are studying strip intercropping technology to help their country reduce its import cost for food commodities, particularly soybeans.
The ongoing work there originated from their collaboration with China but has been optimised specifically for Pakistan based on the country's realities, making it a shining model of Sino-Pak cooperation in both scientific research and educational exchange, according to China Economic Net (CEN) on Wednesday.
Since 2018, Dr Muhammad Ali Raza, a postdoctoral researcher from China's Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU), has been promoting China's maize-soybean strip intercropping technology in Pakistan, with the support and guidance of his professor Yang Wenyu, and has received a positive response, particularly from local industrialists and progressive farmers.
He has become a productive agronomic and expert in intercropping research in Pakistan after years of hard labour.
On August 11, 2021, the NRCI was inaugurated by Athar Mahboob to bring strip intercropping technologies into Pakistani agriculture in order to boost crop yields and soil productivity. Dr Muhammad Ali Raza now serves as the centre's Director, guiding the popularisation of intercropping technology in Pakistan.
So far, the centre has created and optimised Chinese maize-soybean strip intercropping technology for local conditions, as well as undertaken wheat-soybean strip intercropping trials.
Furthermore, in order to improve resource use efficiency and land productivity in Pakistan's sugar belt, the centre is developing sugarcane-based intercropping systems. Recently, the centre performed experiments of sugarcane and wheat-based strip intercropping systems with secondary crops such as rapeseed, soybean, clover, and chickpea, with the goal of producing intercropping-specific varieties of these crops.
The centre is also studying new row designs, notably broader strips, in order to stimulate the mechanisation of strip intercropping systems in Pakistan using existing farm technology.
With the motto "Think Globally, Act Locally," Sino-Pak cooperation is a unique aspect of NRCI. The centre has signed multi-dimensional MoUs with Sichuan Agricultural University (SAU), Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GAAS), and Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS) to exchange resources, researchers, and students, and has also begun collaboration with Nanjing Agricultural University's National Soybean Center (NSC), Agro-ecology and Conservation Lab, and Molecular Biology Lab (NAU).