Dr. Odunze, Azubuike Chidowe, a leading scientist on Soil & Water Conservation/Land Use Management, from Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Department of Soil Science/IAR, visited the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISA) on October 26 and he will stay china for about three months as CAS-TWAS senior visiting scholar.

During his visit in ISA, Dr. Odunze gave two lectures entitled “Edaphic constraints to soil productivity in the arid and semi arid conditions” and “Agricultural land use systems and soil quality changes in subtropical China Regions”

In his first lecture, Dr Odunze introduced his research field and maintains the sustainable crop production in SAT on Alfisols. His work revealed that if sustainable land use management systems were adopted, Alfisols would be capable of producing more food, feed and fiber than it presently does. In Africa SATs, sustainable crop/livestock land use practices to target FYM and crop residues incorporation to improve soils’ SOC are being strategized. In the second lecture, he focused on the work he would do in China including his work team and research object. He is interested in understanding agricultural land use systems and soil quality changes in subtropical china regions and objective of his study is assessing land use systems for soil quality status and document to advance novel land use management strategies for adoption across China subtropical regions.

TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world founded in 1983 by a distinguished group of scientists from the developing world under the leadership of Nobel laureate Abdus Salam of Pakistan has the aim of promoting scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in the South.

CAS and TWAS offer up to fifteen scholarships per year visiting scholars from developing (other than China) who wish to pursue advanced research in natural sciences. It aims to strengthen science links, cooperation and exchange between CAS scientists and CAS-TWAS senior visiting scholar and their laboratories. It is an effective way for the professional development of young scholars.