Sino-Uzbek higher education cooperation set to improve agricultural efficiency

The newly established Tashkent branch of Northwest A&F University started enrolling students from Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries in September, the university said.

The branch campus, the first of its kind among Chinese universities, was inaugurated at the Tashkent State Agrarian University in Uzbekistan in early July.

Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng said he expects the branch of NWAFU in the Uzbek capital to further promote in-depth cooperation between the two countries' institutions of higher education.

He urged the branch campus to create a high-level Sino-Uzbek cooperative education brand based on talent cultivation and expand the scope of industry-university research application cooperation by focusing on the integration of industry and education.

Although NWAFU has started enrolling students, the list of students will not be confirmed until mid-October, according to Zou Yufeng, deputy director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange at NWAFU.

Wu Pute, president of NWAFU, said the branch campus launched its first batch of master's degree programs in three majors — animal husbandry, horticultural science and agricultural management — this month through joint efforts with Tashkent State Agrarian University. Under each program, 10 to 15 students will be admitted annually for the two-year course.

The students will study in Uzbekistan in the first year and then go to NWAFU for their second year. "NWAFU will provide core faculty and curriculum to support the development of the branch campus," he said.

Wu also said that the two sides will work together to develop digital agriculture courses, to narrow the gap in agricultural education resources and improve agricultural education quality in both countries.

Zou, from the NWAFU international cooperation and exchange office, said the digital agriculture courses will integrate high-tech technologies including the internet of things, water and fertilizer automation, image acquisition and processing, and crop growth modeling, with basic disciplines such as agronomy, ecology and soil science.

The courses will realize real-time monitoring of agricultural production processes and dynamic information collection on crop growth and development, pest and disease status, water and fertilizer conditions, he said.

"By integrating agricultural big data and crop growth models to conduct digital simulation of agricultural phenomena and processes, we can utilize agricultural resources in a more scientific and efficient manner, and increase crop yield and quality," he added.

Zou said the digital courses will include field practice at an agricultural technology demonstration park focusing on water-saving built by NWAFU in Tashkent to help the country cultivate innovative and applied talents in water-saving agriculture.

During field practice at the demonstration park, professor Zhu Delan and her team from NWAFU have gained significant knowledge about overcoming the water scarcity issue, which is a major factor limiting agricultural development in Uzbekistan, by using an integrated and automated intelligent water and fertilizer irrigation system.

Thanks to the new system, crop yields in the park have increased by 30 percent, while water usage has been reduced by half and costs cut by 40 percent, according to the university. Zou said the university has established six overseas agricultural technology demonstration parks in partnership with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

"These parks focus on research fields such as crop breeding, water-saving irrigation, animal husbandry and veterinary services, saline-alkali land improvement and utilization, and food processing," he said.

The university has also established a talent cultivation base in Kazakhstan and a training base in Uzbekistan, Zou added.