In this State Key Laboratory in southwest China's Chengdu City, Professor Yang Wenyu and his students are studying the growth of soybeans. They want to find varieties that adapt better to low light levels to be planted between rows of maize, which grows taller and blocks sunlight. The practice is not new. It's called intercropping.
PROFESSOR YANG WENYU, Sichuan Agricultural University "In this case, it will allow additional soybean crop without affecting maize yield."
A result which China sorely needs. The country is currently less than 15% self-sufficient in soybeans. It has to import about 100-million tonnes each year. So why not plant more?
PROFESSOR YANG WENYU, Sichuan Agricultural University "Soybean and maize are planted in the same season. There is only limited land. If you plant maize, there's no room for soybeans and vice versa. Maize is a grain crop so our country needs to ensure maize production. Plus, it's more profitable for farmers, so farmers have more incentive to plant maize. Therefore, there's a serious shortage of soybeans in our country."
And with global population on the rise, and the demand for protein products increasing, the soybean-maize intercropping method also has the potential to contribute to global food security.
It's already being used on about one-million hectares of farmlands in China, and has increased the country's annual soybean production by 1.5%. But Yang Wenyu is getting much resistance popularizing the intercropping method, mainly because difficulties in mechanization.
PROFESSOR YANG WENYU, Sichuan Agricultural University "Since our ancestors started planting maize, they planted it in combination with soybeans. It's nothing new. But modern farmers think it's too out of date, and too much trouble. Because there needs to be a certain distance for machinery to operate. If we plant one row of soybean and one row of maize, there's no room for machinery to go in."
Yang Wenyu has been perfecting the method for 23 years now. Much of his work is to figure out the optimal space between rows of crops for mechanization and good yield. He says there's nothing glitz and glam about his work. But he beams as he explains the technicalities.
PROFESSOR YANG WENYU, Sichuan Agricultural University "It's all about finding the perfect spacing between rows and density between plants. How to space it more scientifically so as to maximize the light efficiency. It may look easy, but it's actually quite hard to find the magic number."
Yang Wenyu's experiments have shown the distance between rows of maize can be as wide as two meters, which is more than sufficient to machines to operate. Sensing a business potential, dozens of companies in China are now churning out planting and harvesting machinery for soybean-maize intercropping. Yang Wenyu is dreaming big.
PROFESSOR YANG WENYU, Sichuan Agricultural University "My goal is to fill in all our country's soybean shortage. We have 40 million hectares of maize farm. Can we intercrop soybeans on all of it? If so, that means an increased 72 million tonnes of soybeans, almost sufficient to solve our problem."
Yang Wenyu admits there's still a long way to go. But he's willing to bring about change one farmland at a time. Tao Yuan, CGTN, Chengdu.
