Azeem Ahmed Khan

A leading Chinese seed company has teamed up with universities, research institutes, and agribusinesses to modernize agriculture in Pakistan by upgrading skills and introducing advanced cultivation techniques.

Talking to Wealth Pakistan, Director of Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Company Ltd Zhou Xusheng said, “Farmer education remains central to my approach.”

Zhou said his company is building long-term research capacity in Pakistan to address climate stress and food demand.

Supported by the Hubei Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the company has established an international technology transfer and cooperation center to test crop varieties under local conditions.

Zhou said Pakistan’s fertile soil, favorable climate, and hardworking farmers offer strong agricultural potential, but frequent heatwaves and floods linked to climate change are creating an urgent demand for heat-tolerant crops.

To meet this challenge, Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Company is developing varieties directly in Pakistan rather than relying solely on Chinese trials, while also expanding winter crop programs to introduce Chinese vegetable varieties aimed at meeting the needs of Pakistan’s large and growing population, he said.

Pakistan’s vegetable sector faces massive domestic demand driven by its 242 million population, with daily consumption running very high, prompting efforts to introduce leading Chinese vegetable varieties to local farmers to help ensure sufficient supply, Zhou said.

Seed innovation must be matched with farmer training, he said. Giving seed alone is not enough; you must also teach farmers how to use it, he added.

As part of this effort, the company runs both online and in-person programs to train technicians and partner teams on cultivation techniques, variety characteristics, and climate risk management.

Women’s empowerment is also embedded in the company’s approach. The company plans to work with local governments to strengthen women’s participation in agriculture, particularly through family-based processing initiatives that allow women to earn income while managing household nutrition.

“In China, we believe it is not enough to give people fish. The most important thing is to teach them how to catch fish,” Zhou said, stressing that knowledge transfer is essential for sustainable growth.

Under the China-Pakistan collaboration, 1,000 Pakistani agriculture graduates have undergone three months of training in China, co-hosted by Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Company and Huazhong Agricultural University. The curriculum had been designed specifically around Pakistan’s seed technology requirements.

Zhou said the program was developed following discussions with Chinese authorities and Pakistan’s leadership, after which students were invited to train in his home city. Alongside classroom instruction, the participants gained hands-on exposure through China’s National Agricultural Park and National Agricultural High Technology Zone.

The trainees were also connected with fertilizer, agrochemical, seed, horticulture, and food processing companies to observe how Chinese enterprises apply modern agricultural technologies across the entire production chain.

He said the initiative has been well received by the students, who will rejoin his company’s field programs upon returning to Pakistan.

Each year, Wuhan Qingfa Hesheng Seed Company and its partner Evyol Group conduct more than 100 field training sessions for Pakistani farmers, Zhou said, adding that returning graduates will be integrated into these activities to share what they learned abroad.

“Our concept is studied in China, utilized in Pakistan,” he said.

Concluding, Zhou said coordinated support – combining seed, machinery, training, and crop planning – is needed to help farmers manage market risks and move toward higher-value production.

Zhou first came to Pakistan in 2010, spending his early years working directly in the fields on technician training, cultivation, and crop demonstrations before moving into marketing and agricultural research and development.

Credit: INP-WealthPk