Soybean expert journeys north with students
After the historic space launch of drought-tolerant Longhuang Soybeans that he co-developed in May, Lam Hon-ming, CUHK Choh-Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences, led a study tour of school teachers and students from Hong Kong to Gansu Province last month to learn about soybean farming and latest agricultural developments in the country.
The tour, organised by CUHK, was joined by more than 70 teachers and students from ten secondary schools. During the five-day trip, participants visited the Agricultural Expo Park of the Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Gansu Aacademy of Agricultural Sciences, the academy’s water-saving experiment field station at Zhangye, a similar facility at China Agricultural University, and Clover Seed Company in Jiuquan. They also had the opportunities to interact with young agriculture researchers there.
“The students saw the deserts along the way as we rode on the bus. They learned of the importance of water. But they also saw how roads and electricity grids connected people and changed their lives. They also saw the large wind farms and the efforts China are making in developing renewable energy,” said Professor Lam, also Director of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology at CUHK.
“The Longhuang Soybeans were launched into space to Tiangong space station in May. This was special to the students as they saw for themselves such beans were grown over the land in Jiuquan,” he added.
Professor Lam, with his collaborator Professor Zhang Guohong from the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, developed three soybean cultivars with excellent salt and drought tolerance. The seeds have been distributed to Gansu farmers at no cost since 2016. With the space experiment, the team will analyse the returned specimens to explore the mutation mechanism of soybean seeds in space, aiming to achieve breakthroughs in agricultural technology.
Also in the tour was Dr Victor Lau Kwok-chi, Assistant Dean of Education, and Philos Chan Ting-fung, Associate Professor of Life Sciences. The tour was co-organised by Education 2.1 Big Education Platform and sponsored by Ting Ka Ping Foundation and Shine Tak Foundation.
