Gwen is originally from Malawi and holds a master's degree from the Quzhou Science and Technology Academy of China Agricultural University. The restraint and fear of the language barrier when I first arrived in China disappeared in the heat of the meal, the laughter, and the fireworks that bloomed. "At this moment, I didn't feel homesick because China gave me a homely feeling. Gwen said to me, and smiled heartily.
Agriculture is the backbone of Malawi's economy, with maize as the main crop, in which smallholder farmers play a vital role. Despite policies to achieve food security and poverty reduction, the country still faces challenges such as rain-fed irrigation, low productivity, and extreme weather.
Gwen was born in a rural area of Malawi, where he spent more than two decades before going to university. Her father was a large local rice grower, and the brown earth, blue sky, green seedlings and yellow rice painted her childhood pictures, and the backs of her father and other farmers working hard were deeply imprinted in her mind.
Farming is so hard that I can't bear to see the frustration of farmers who have been busy for months without being able to harvest. "I studied Xi agriculture to better help my dad and others in our community." ”
Nitrogen is a key nutrient for plant growth and plays a vital role in crop yields and soil fertility, and the way nitrogen is managed can have a significant impact on crop productivity and environmental sustainability. Gwen focused on the effects of different nitrogen management methods on grain yield and soil fertility in winter wheat-maize rotation under optimized crop rotation and rotary tillage system. "I hope to contribute knowledge and strength to agricultural practices, develop effective nitrogen management strategies, and research sustainable farming systems. Gwen said.
Before coming to China for graduate school, Gwen worked as a seed systems technician at the International Institute for Tropical Crops in Semi-Arid Areas (ICRISAT). She is well aware that in order to change the current situation of agriculture in Malawi, theoretical knowledge alone is not enough, and how to make farmers recognize and use new technologies and promote the widespread dissemination of new technologies among farmers is also a major problem that needs to be solved.
In Malawi, it is difficult for farmers to receive information from the outside world, and they can only rely on 'one transmission' to transmit information.
The method of 10, 10 to 100 is very inefficient and not very accurate. "The Science and Technology Yard (STB) model has given me a good inspiration to turn my father's farm into a place for farmers to cooperate and demonstrate technology for other farmers to Xi." I was also able to set up my own farmer group to share farming knowledge and skills with them, help them solve their problems, and develop their ability to solve problems on their own. ”
Year after year, the number of international students who have traveled across the ocean to study Xi agriculture in China like Gwen is increasing. Akhatayeva Zhanerke and Habtamu who are dedicated to studying the genes of sheep and sesame seeds, Muhammad Numan Khan who wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agricultural production, Kangjana who studies natural enemies and insects to fight weeds, Brenda who is concerned about nitrogen fertilizer management strategies, Malikov Mahammad who is concerned about the import and export of wine and other agricultural products... They are indispensable in the laboratory, and they will not be absent from the sowing and harvest in the field.
China's agricultural civilization has a long history, and agricultural sentiment has no national borders. Most of these international students came with the dream of changing the status quo of agriculture in their hometowns, and in China, they not only gained new knowledge and technology, but also had new friends and good memories.
Excerpted from "I Studied Agriculture in China", originally published in Dong Jiachen, the author of "Farmer**".