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 ofwho are engaged with the fresh vegetable & presentations on conventional & advanced new varieties, diseases & pest managemethe 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 1ica, 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 practicesn 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 iconversion of desert area into green farmland,

variety protection, detecting hybrid seed purity through gel the organizer Anhui Jiang Huai Technology Seed Co. (reputed Ch

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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

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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, chilipepper 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.

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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

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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 interestingand 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 plotsincluding 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

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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’ countryfocusing 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.

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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 andtheir 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

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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

food. Now commercially selenium ricavailable in the market. Chicken fed selenium and grasses having rcow’s milk contain high level of selenium isthe different types of crops, the order of ranking of Bean > cereals. Realizing the importance oOrganization 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 onDiseases by Transgenic plus RNAin Horticultural Breeding’, ‘Gel Electrophoresis of proteins in Detecting the Seed Purity of Pepper Hybrids’, ‘Agriculture Science and Technology Policy in Chinainformative 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

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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 SeleniumOrganization 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.

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, 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.

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