An skilled of Science and Technology Backyard specializing in soy bean cultivation in Zambia shares experiences with native farmers. (Photo/Huang Xiaodong)
China’s Science and Technology Backyard (STB) program, an agricultural innovation and service platform that includes university-farmer cooperation, is a brand new built-in mannequin that mixes scientific and technological innovation, social companies, and expertise cultivation.
By connecting college laboratories with agricultural fields, it breaks down boundaries between analysis and instructing, between students and farmers, and between educational disciplines and real-world wants.
At the identical time, it builds bridges linking principle with follow, universities with rural communities, and youth improvement with social progress.
Since its 2009 launch in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, the STB mannequin has successfully addressed the “last mile” problem in agricultural expertise adoption. It has expanded nationwide and internationally, now working in 11 international locations. As a China-originated strategy, it helps sustainable farming throughout the Global South and exemplifies efforts to construct a shared future for humanity by way of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
By cultivating native expertise in accomplice international locations and drawing on China’s profitable expertise to stimulate endogenous agricultural improvement, the STB mannequin helps international locations discover improvement paths suited to their very own situations, providing a scientific answer for agricultural improvement within the Global South.
International college students educated by way of the program can return residence to lead native farmers in adopting new applied sciences and growing productiveness and incomes. This people-centered, results-oriented strategy has gained recognition from host-country governments, consultants, farmers, and worldwide organizations.
A Chinese skilled of Science and Technology Backyard in Malawi discusses corn maize yield-improvement methods with native college students. (Photo supplied by China Agricultural University)
As the founder of the STB program, I’ve, by way of greater than a decade of exploration, established and validated a viable pathway for the mannequin’s global growth. We pioneered a “1+1+1” coaching mannequin: Year 1 in China for foundational data, Year 2 for home-country STB utility, and Year 3 in China for refinement—guaranteeing seamless integration of studying and implementation.
In a number of African nations, STB graduates have launched a “1-3-5-1” initiative: tackling one regional agricultural problem, mentoring 30 farmers in discipline trials, coaching 5 extension brokers, and establishing a 100-mu (6.67-hectare) demonstration plot. This adapts Chinese methodologies to native contexts whereas constructing capability and delivering measurable outcomes.
In Malawi, as an illustration, the STB program helped 90 native farmers quadruple their maize yields in its very first yr, enhancing meals safety throughout 18 villages. Recognized for its tangible impression, the STB program has been featured by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a number one case research for worldwide promotion.
From a domestically developed innovation in China, abroad STBs first took root in African international locations and have since been expanded in Brazil, Malaysia, and past, with cooperation fashions changing into more and more various.
Brazilian college students of Science and Technology Backyard within the State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, in addition to native farmers, study to function a drone manufactured in China. (Photo by Diogense Nobrega)
The STB program emphasizes that technological innovation should advance in tandem with expertise cultivation and that green improvement should ship tangible advantages to farmers. Successful abroad practices have absolutely demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of China’s path towards green agricultural improvement.
Today, because the world grapples with meals safety and local weather change, advancing the green transformation of agriculture has turn into a global precedence.
China is prepared to work with worldwide companions to develop the STB program into an open community for cooperation — sharing expertise, contributing options, and selling collaborative innovation.
Plans are underway to set up an STB global heart to systematically summarize and disseminate profitable practices, assist international locations in cultivating native expertise, and empower agricultural transformation worldwide. This will allow the STB mannequin — originating in China — to function an efficient pathway for global green transformation of agriculture.
(Zhang Fusuo is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, professor at China Agricultural University, and vice chairman of the China Rural Special Technology Association.)
(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Hongyu)