“We hope to bring China’s Science and Technology Backyard (STB) program to more Belt and Road partner countries and Global South nations, helping local people secure adequate food and clothing while advancing agricultural modernization,” mentioned Zhang Fusuo, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s high legislature.
Zhang, additionally an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at China Agricultural University, is the founding father of the STB program.
Since its 2009 launch in Quzhou county, north China’s Hebei Province, the STB mannequin has successfully addressed the “last mile” problem in agricultural know-how adoption.
China has launched greater than 1,800 STBs nationwide and included the program into the “No. 1 central document” — the primary coverage assertion issued by China’s central authorities every year — in each 2024 and 2025.
Zhang Fushuo checks on the expansion of wheat in a area in Quzhou county, north China’s Hebei Province. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
The STB mannequin has expanded internationally, now working in 11 nations and contributing to the global green transformation of agriculture.
Zhang pioneered a “1+1+1” coaching mannequin to drive the program’s global enlargement: one 12 months in China for foundational data, one 12 months making use of the STB mannequin within the participant’s dwelling nation, and a closing 12 months again in China for refinement — bridging studying and real-world implementation.
In Zhang’s view, nurturing native expertise is the one most necessary lever for taking the mannequin global. By coaching home-grown professionals in companion nations, the program goals to supply systematic options to agricultural improvement challenges in Belt and Road companion nations and Global South nations.
The STB mannequin, which started as a neighborhood Chinese innovation, first took root overseas in Africa earlier than increasing to Brazil, Malaysia and past, with cooperation fashions rising more and more various.
The mannequin’s success overseas has demonstrated the viability and effectiveness of China’s path towards green agricultural improvement, and the program has been acknowledged by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a number one case research for worldwide promotion.
Plans are underway to determine an STB global middle to systematically summarize and disseminate profitable practices, help nations in cultivating native expertise, and empower agricultural improvement and transformation, in response to Zhang.
(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)