It was a busy first year for members of the NZ-China Water Research Centre who undertook two scoping visits to China.
Overall, the scoping tours went extremely well says Centre Director Professor Hong Di from Lincoln University. The visits provided a great opportunity for the New Zealand team to present and introduce the New Zealand – China Water Centre to key Chinese institutions and scientists, gauge interest in collaborating, and explore opportunities for joint research projects, staff exchanges and joint student training.
Members of the NZ-China Water Research Centre also led and participated in three stakeholder workshops, two in China and one in New Zealand.
In Jinan, in October 2016, more than 70 participants including from the New Zealand Dairy Cooperative Fonterra, New Zealand Embassy in Beijing, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Agriculture of China, local animal government departments and research providers, several China dairy companies, local environmental protection agency, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and China Agricultural University took part in a symposium the “Circular Economy – Sustainable Farm Manure Utilization”.
In November 2016 a delegation from the Yunnan Department of Science & Technology, who have worked closely with the New Zealand’s Crown Research Institute Plant and Food Research for many years, visited New Zealand. At Lincoln, the NZ – China Water Research Centre hosted a workshop session on water and agriculture. Participants included Lincoln University, Lincoln Hub, Plant and Food Research, Lincoln Agritech, Landcare Research, Croplogic Ltd., Irrigation NZ, Mainland Grazing Ltd. The session purpose was to introduce the Yunnan Delegation to potential research and commercial opportunities.
Also in November 2016 a “Soil-Plant Interaction” workshop was held at Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) in Wuhan China and was attended by Dr Wenhua Wei representing the NZ-China Water Research Centre and three scientists from New Zealand’s Crown Research Institute Scion, which specialises in research, science and technology development for the forestry, wood and wood-derived materials sectors. The two-day workshop had 42 attendees mainly from HZAU and Institute of Subtropical Agricultural Ecology (ISAE) of Chinese Academy of Sciences.