Activities of an international training workshop on vegetables held in China very recently has been described. Basically Ministry of Science & Technology, China and Anhui, Jianghuai Horticulture Technology Co.,Ltd organised this workshop. Near about 32 participants of 12 countries attended to the workshop.It was a very good opportunity for the participants to share their knowledge through the forum and new business relations have also been developed through this workshop. Advance breeding techniques, New vegetable varieties, Seed purity testing, Plant pathology, Entomology, Vegetable cultivation in the protected enviroment, Functional Agriculture, Conversion of dryland to green farmland etc.have been described. Participants from different countries also presented their country report in the workshop. There were also study tours. In fact, it was a very fruitful workshop and a memorable China trip for all the participants. #suggested link of my you tube video on wheat cultivation at Natore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1LOpz66YHg&t=197s

1. Very recently I attend
“Demonstration and Promotion of
May - 15th
June 2014 at Hefei, China. All along 32
(Bangladesh, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan,
Thailand & Vietnam) attended to
opportunities to know the progress made by the Chinese scientists in the breeding of new
improved different kinds of vegetable
also the dissemination pattern of
well. Also this workshop gave me an opportunity to exchange views with the
vegetable experts; scientists and business peoples of
who are engaged with the fresh vegetable &
presentations on conventional & advanced
new varieties, diseases & pest manageme
the protected environment, conversion of desert area into green farmland,
functional agriculture, variety protection,
electrophoresis etc. the organizer Anhui Jiang Huai Technology Seed Co.
- Dr. S. C. Biswas
attended to the 3rd
international training workshop on
romotion of New Vegetable Varieties & Technologies” held from 26
2014 at Hefei, China. All along 32 participants from 1
ica, Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan,
attended to this workshop. In fact, this particular workshop gave me
to know the progress made by the Chinese scientists in the breeding of new
different kinds of vegetable varieties, their innovative management practices
n of these varieties and the technologies at the farmers level
his workshop gave me an opportunity to exchange views with the
scientists and business peoples of China and other participating
fresh vegetable & vegetable seed sector. Apart from
conventional & advanced breeding techniques for the development of
diseases & pest management practices, profitable cultivation of vegetables i
conversion of desert area into green farmland,
variety protection, detecting hybrid seed purity through gel
the organizer Anhui Jiang Huai Technology Seed Co. (reputed Ch
1
Dr. S. C. Biswas
international training workshop on
held from 26th
participants from 12 countries
ica, Egypt, Iran, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan,
hop. In fact, this particular workshop gave me
to know the progress made by the Chinese scientists in the breeding of new
management practices and
at the farmers level as
his workshop gave me an opportunity to exchange views with the Chinese
participating countries
Apart from theoretical
techniques for the development of
cultivation of vegetables in
conversion of desert area into green farmland, sustainable
detecting hybrid seed purity through gel
(reputed Chinese

2. 2
vegetable seed company particularly for watermelon, melon & chili pepper seeds) showed
us their own seed company premises, their Research & Development Farm, Provincial Seed
Inspection & Plant Quarantine Department, Anhui Agricultural University, University of
Science & Technology China, Provincial Food safety & Quality Control Department etc. for
acquiring knowledge & develop realistic insight about the seed business management at
the practical level.
Fig. 1.University of Science & Technology of China at Hefei. Fig.2. Plant Quarantine Department at Hefei.
We also visited the Demonstration Plots, Seed Processing Unit and Administrative
Sections of JHTC where their officials gave us the practical idea about their strength in the
production of good quality seeds and marketing of their products at the domestic and
international level. To give us the idea about the modern strawberry cultivation techniques,
their commercial propagation method and quality sapling production processes at the farm
level the organizer also arranged a tour to a local commercial strawberry production farm. A
complete one day visit to the JHTC R & D farm actually gave us the opportunity to see their
tissue culture laboratory and the activities being performed in the laboratory, commercial
cultivation of different kinds of vegetables viz, watermelon, melon, pumpkin, tomato, chili
pepper in protected environment and the successful grafting technique they are using in
water melon and pumpkin to prevent the attack of soil borne pathogens.
Fig.3. Tissue cultured plants in the laboratory of JHTC Fig.4. High yielding watermelon hybrids in
R & D Farm. JHTC R & D Farm.

3. 3
In the R & D farm we also got the opportunity to select the suitable type of
watermelon to be grown in our country on the basis of the performance of their varieties
grown in demonstration plots. There we also exchanged our views with the JHTC scientists
& marketing manager regarding our choice of the watermelon varieties and based on our
choice JHTC marketing manager also gave us few seed samples for conducting trial
experiments in Bangladesh.
Fig.5. New Chinese watermelon variety in JHTC R & D Farm. Fig.6. Chinese high yielding melon varieties in
JHTC.
Besides, we also visited another private agriculture farm at Hefei to see the suitable
vegetable cultivation techniques followed by other farms in China. Again, we also went to
the local seed market at Hefei to gather knowledge about Chinese seed marketing system in
the city markets like Hefei.
Fig.7. Red pumpkin grown in JHTC R & D Farm. Fig.8. A Chinese seed traders shop at Hefei, China
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE ACTIVITIES DURING THE TRAINING PERIOD
There were training classes, field tours and other training related activities all of
which were most interesting, quiet informative as well as enjoyable. Some of the excerpts of
the training classes are given below:
Vegetable breeding presented by Ms. Song Jianghua was an excellent presentation
on different kinds of breeding activities on various kinds of vegetable crops. She tried to give
an insight on the basic and applied principles of breeding activities generally carried out in

4. 4
China for the improvement of different kinds of vegetable crops. Her presentation on the
Adaptibility of the vegetable crops to the protected cultivation was very much interesting
and enjoyable in the perspective of Bangladesh Vegetable Cultivation. In Bangladesh it is
very difficult to grow vegetables in the monsoon season under normal field condition. And
growing vegetables under the protective environment may be an option to produce
vegetables successfully in the rainy season when there is a great scarcity of vegetables in
the rainy season. Suitable varieties which can grow well under the plastic mulch & green
house in the weak light with relatively high temperature & moisture conditions gives
successful production of high quality vegetables under the protective environment. Both
Bangladesh & China can begin their business in this particular area through joint venture
initiative.
Professor Zhou Zhenkai elaborately discussed about the Importance of Plant Variety
Protection and emphasized the significance of the total system to encourage the new ideas,
innovative thoughts, novel techniques and China’s education system is very much active in
this area. He also mentioned that Chinese Academy of science has already developed a
system of providing scholarship to the young scientists of developing countries particularly
Bangladesh to encourage innovation.
He also discussed elaborately the basic ideas of Plant varieties Protection, its
principles and importance in the current global situation of seed business. He also
appreciated the efforts of Bangladeshi scientists to develop innovative type of vegetables
with good nutritional quality like anthocyanin rich red okra, anthocyanin, carotene and iron
rich red spinach, yellow mung bean, purple hot pepper, summer country bean, anthocyanin
red yardlong bean etc. Prof. Zhou Zhenkai gave few examples of the Chinese transgenic
plants of tobacco, wheat and rice plants with EDT1 gene. Moreover, he showed us some
pictures of transgenic rice & transgenic turf grass which were found to be resistant to the
droughty conditions. The newly developed crops require less amount of water for their
production & their successful growth as well which actually were the glaring examples of
transgenic crops and grass which can save water more efficiently.
On 30.05.14 under the title of the topic Bacterial disease on Horticultural Crops Dr.
Lixin Zhang discussed on different types of Bacteria , their mode of multiplication, their
action on the plant cell wall, infection pattern, symptoms of the different kinds of bacterial
diseases, their prevention and control measures respectively.
On that very day in the afternoon we visited the JH Seed Farm premises & the seed
Processing Centre as well and found that all the stages of the variety development
processes, seed production & processing is being carried out very systematically. In the
backyard of the processing centre we found different kinds of vegetable research plots
including pumpkin, chili pepper, watermelon, brinjal, yardlong bean and other leafy
vegetables. The striking feature of the field grown plants which were also grown in
Bangladesh for adaptive trial by BRAC were found to be very luxuriant and exuberance in

5. 5
growth in the Chinese agro climatic condition. All the employees of the company were very
cordial and sympathetic particularly Mr. Leo She and Ms. Sharon. Ms. Sharon & Mr. Leo took
us all to the respective sections and gave brief lecture on the activities being carried out in
different sections of the establishment.
On 1st
June there were presentations on the Reports of the participants’ country
focusing vegetable industry development in their respective countries. Almost all the
participants presented their report focusing their achievements in the vegetable sector,
trend of fresh vegetable trading & seed business as well and constraints in fresh vegetable &
vegetable seed production in their countries. A lively discussion was held at the end of each
report presentation.
In the lecture on Aphids of Non-pollution Control; definition of aphids, distribution,
taxonomy, life cycle, anatomy, diets, transmission, bacterial endosymbiosis, carotenoid
synthesis, reproduction, evolution, etc. were presented extensively to identify, classify and
to handle the control measures of aphid problem in various cultivated crop species. The
evolution of aphids and carotenoid synthesis in the aphid population were quite interesting.
The presenter also described how the fungi, bacteria etc. kills the aphids and destroys their
body parts. It was also interesting to see how the aphids form gall like symptoms in the host
leaf surface residing within the tissue. At the end of the presentation the different control
measures of aphids was described. Both chemical control and control by plant based
chemicals including neem oil, extracts of Lantena camera have been recommended for
controlling aphids.
In his presentation Key Culture Technologies for Some New Vegetable Varieties the
presenter described elaborately the different types of technologies surrounding the
cultivation techniques of different types of vegetables under protected environment. The
different types of protective technologies usually followed in China are: 1. Plastic houses, 2.
Solar green houses & 3. Glass houses etc. Growing vegetables under protected environment
was very much interesting and the presenter successfully depicted the real picture of the
vegetable business operating by the Chinese growers. Different types of vegetable crops like
melon, cucumber, tomato, egg plant etc. are grown under the protected environment
following special techniques. Varieties of different vegetable crops usually developed by the
universities, colleges and institutes are usually planted in the plastic houses, solar green
house and glass houses. To protect crops from insects protecting nets are also used in some
cases. Grafted watermelons are also used to raise soil borne disease free watermelon crop.
The application of modern water saving irrigation system and fertigation system was
discussed elaborately to demonstrate their suitability in the modern vegetable business
oriented cultivation techniques.

6. 6
Fig.9. Pumpkin – watermelon grafting demonstration
In his presentation on Fungal & Viral Disease on Horticultural Crops Mr. Zhang Lixin at first
gave us an idea of different fungal diseases in different horticultural crops caused by the
various types of fungi and these were early blight of potato/tomato caused by Alternaria
solanai, chestnut blight caused by Crysophonectia parasitica, Fusarium wilt caused by
Fusarium oxysporum and anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum spp. Besides these diseases
different kinds of diseases in vegetable crops caused by different pathogens were also
discussed. Downy mildew caused by Peronospora sp. was also discussed by Mr. Lixin.
Moreover, Rhizopus fruit rot Cedar Apple Rot, soybean rust and coffee rust disease was also
a part of his discussion.
In 2nd
part of his discussion viral diseases on horticultural crops was discussed
elaborately. These were potato leaf roll virus (PLRV), tobacco rattle virus and potato virus Y
complex, cucumber mosaic virus etc. In this part of presentation he delivered an elaborate
discussion on the characteristics of viruses, nature of coat protein, inclusions, bodies and
their identification methods.
Mr. Song Wei presented his lecture on China’s smart agriculture development
comprehensively and he wanted to show the modern techniques including computer aided
agricultural techniques being used in China for its tremendous improvement in agriculture
sector. He informed us that agriculture reform which was initiated by the then President
Den Jiao Ping contributed a significant development in agriculture in China. Under this
reform in the name of agricultural revolution the lands own by the Govt. was distributed to
the farmers and other facilities of production were also given to them. As a result 2 to 3
times higher production was obtained from the same piece of land by following the new
system. Encouraged by the new system the subsequent Govt. also paid special attention to
the agricultural reforms and these initiatives helped a lot to bring a huge success in
agriculture in China. He also informed us that the contribution of agriculture sector in
National GDP in china is very significant and it will contribute in a similar fashion in the
coming two decades at least. He also argued that in the current situation real state business
is very much profitable business in China. But this type of business is not sustainable in the

7. 7
country like China rather agriculture and agribusiness is a sustainable business. As for
example, he reminded us about new hybrid rice varieties developed by Yan Long Pin is an
important breakthrough in the Chinese food production and food security issue as well as it
is also earning huge amount of foreign revenue to China. And new vegetable varieties such
as, bigger potatoes, larger onions, gourds, radishes developed by the Chinese scientists
again increased vegetable production, consumption in China and also increased their
export. New techniques of agricultural information push viz., weather forecasting, choice of
fertilizer, disease warning & pest monitoring; granary monitoring systems are contributing
tremendously in the improvement of Chinese modern agriculture.
Fig. 10. Delicious Chinese yellow fleshed watermelon. Fig. 12.High quality sapling raising of strawberry.
In China the importance of Functional Agriculture was felt with the rising economy
in the country very recently. Just after 2000 when actually the sharp rise of economy was
recorded with the rising purchasing power of the common people. They became more
conscious about health as well as nutrition and they got interested in consuming more
nutritious food in which trace elements like Se, Zn, Fe, Ca etc. were added to increase the
nutritional level of the food. And the works on “Functional Agriculture” get started during
the year as early as in 2008 in China. By this time a road map on the production of functional
food has also been chalked out up to 2050. Among the different kinds of functional food
“Foods with enriched selenium was targeted first as selenium acts actually an antioxidant
and it has been found to be associated several health benefits as well as ward off certain
diseases and ailments of human beings such as, it protects liver, maintain healthy
cardiovascular system, acts as an ant ageing elements and strengthens the immune system.
It can be mentioned here that selenium can be increased in the foods by providing plants
with selenium rich fertilizer or through breeding new variety with increased selenium in its
edible parts.
As per WHO the daily requirement of selenium per person is 200µg/day/capita. In
china soil with enriched selenium has been identified in a province and this selenium rich
soil is being used as fertilizer to produce selenium rich food. Selenium bio fortification is also
a very common technique in America where selenium rich cactus salad is a very delicious

8. food. Now commercially selenium ric
available in the market. Chicken fed selenium and grasses having r
cow’s milk contain high level of selenium is
the different types of crops, the order of ranking of
Bean > cereals. Realizing the importance o
Organization has been operating its research activities and their work is now in progress
towards the development of selenium rich rice,
presenter Dr. Xuebin Yin gave us sample of
taste was found to be very good
In addition, presentations on
Diseases by Transgenic plus RNA
in Horticultural Breeding’, ‘Gel Electrophoresis of proteins in Detecting the Seed Purity of
Pepper Hybrids’, ‘Agriculture Science and Technology Policy in China
informative and enjoyable.
Fig. 12.In the closing ceremony of the training workshop.
Finally, the training workshop was concluded on 13.
to the participants. The Chinese are very much hospitable and each & every participants
were found to be very much satisfied
Really, it was one of my very nice
----------------------------------------------------------
food. Now commercially selenium rich potato, sweet potato, selenium rich honey meal are
available in the market. Chicken fed selenium and grasses having rich in selenium fed with
level of selenium is the other source of selenium rich food.
the order of ranking of the availability of selenium is
the importance of selenium an International Selenium
Organization has been operating its research activities and their work is now in progress
towards the development of selenium rich rice, tea & fruits as well as vegetables. Finally the
gave us sample of Chinese made biofortified selenium malt and its
taste was found to be very good when it was drank like tea.
resentations on ‘Insights Into the Control of Vegetable
ransgenic plus RNAi Strategies’, ‘Outline of Application of Gene Engineering
Gel Electrophoresis of proteins in Detecting the Seed Purity of
Agriculture Science and Technology Policy in China’ were also quiet
In the closing ceremony of the training workshop.
the training workshop was concluded on 13. 06. 14 with the awarding of certificates
The Chinese are very much hospitable and each & every participants
very much satisfied with the facilities provided during the training period.
nice experiences in China.
---------------------------------------------------------- 0 -----------------------------------------------------------
8
, sweet potato, selenium rich honey meal are
ich in selenium fed with
of selenium rich food. Among
the availability of selenium is: Brassica >
International Selenium Research
Organization has been operating its research activities and their work is now in progress
tea & fruits as well as vegetables. Finally the
biofortified selenium malt and its
egetable Pest and
tline of Application of Gene Engineering
Gel Electrophoresis of proteins in Detecting the Seed Purity of
were also quiet
awarding of certificates
The Chinese are very much hospitable and each & every participants
during the training period.
-----------------------------------------------------------