On June 6-9, 2017, Nicholas Ostle, the professor of Plant and Soil Ecology at Lancaster University, along with other three members Shane Rothwell, Annette Ryan and Nikki Flook visited South China Agricultural University(SCAU). Professor Yongtao Li, the deputy dean of College of Natural Resources and Environment of SCAU hosted the visit. Prof.Li organized a workshop with Prof.Ostle’s team on the theme of plant-soil interactions research for soil security.

 The workshop was held at the Joint Institute for Environmental Research & Education (JIE) which is an international platform collaborated between Lancaster University, SCAU and Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIG). Prof.Ostle’s team gave speeches on soil-plant diversity, nutrient cycling, green house emission and N8 AgriFood Resilience Programme. Prof.Li introduced the College of Natural Resources and Environment, the high level university construction and the condition of JIE. Prof. Qitang Wu, Prof.Kunzheng Cai, Prof.Chunling Luo and Associate Prof. Yanfei Cai delivered speeches on acid soil improvement.

Nicholas Ostle giving the speech

Discussing at the workshop

Group photo for the workshop

After the workshop, the delegation visited SCAU’s testing centre, state key lab for conservation and utilization of subtropical agro-bioresources and group microorganism research centre.

Visiting labs

Visiting the phytotron

Visiting state key lab for conservation and utilization of subtropical agro-bioresources

The delegation also visited the experiment base of farmland of SCAU in Zengcheng. The director of the base, Prof.Zhengsheng Xie, and the previous president of SCAU, Prof. Shiming Luo introduced the development of the experiment base and discussed the current issues of Chinese agriculture. Prof.Ostle showed great interest for the fieldtrip experiment and would like to take advantage of the base to build up collaborations on research, education and teaching for JIE.

Discussing with Shiming Luo and Zhengsheng Xie

Visiting experiment farmland for rice

Visiting experiment farmland for rice

Visiting farmland for grapes

The experiment base established in 1998 is located in Feng Village of Xintang town in Guangzhou, which is 46 kilometers away from Guangzhou. The station includes 85 hectares of ecological economic forest land, 104 hectares of dry sloping land, 53 hectares of paddy land, and 15 hectares of reservoirs and ponds. SCAU has invested 210 million yuan for the land infrastructure construction, and actively introduced related research development projects. Every year,  national and international research projects are launched. And many new varieties, such as rice, soybean, vegetables, fruit trees, camellia oleifera are demonstrated in the bases, which attracts a large number of agricultural enterprises to visit and cooperate.