Uncategorized
Agricultural expert benefits farmers with aeroponics
By Gu Chun, People’s Daily
In Yusangang village, Liandu district, Lishui, east China’s Zhejiang province, there is an 18-meter-high greenhouse which is unique compared to other kinds.
A beehive-type structure made of rebars is seen in the greenhouse, on which a wire-mesh passage spirals up. On the two sides of the passage, rows of boxes with various types of plant roots and stems are hanging in the air.
“These are sweet potatoes,” said Xu Weizhong, technical chief of facility agriculture with an academy of agricultural sciences in Lishui, lifting a well-grown root of the plant in the greenhouse, which was nearly half a meter long.
In front of the sweet potatoes stood some peach trees with shorter roots and trunks as thick as two fingers. According to Xu, these trees would yield fist-sized peaches a year later. On the top of the structure, there were also rows of giant rice that could grow to two meters high.
The stems and roots of these plants are connected to sensors, which could detect the dry humidity and inform the sprayers to various sprinkle nutrient solutions automatically. which are tailored for different plants. Solutions could be collected separately through water pipes at the box bottom and then sterilized and recycled.
“This is aeroponics. With this technology, plants can grow in the air without fertilizer or soil. The growth is managed by intelligent devices,” Xu told People’s Daily.
This technology has been acknowledged by many Chinese and foreign experts and scholars, and is a new method that truly helps farmers increase their income, he added.
Aeroponics is a technology of high value. Rapid propagation, a branch of aeroponics technology, is evaluated to be worth 140 million yuan.
Aeroponics has been widely applied in deserts, offshore farms and extremely cold mountainous regions, bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to residents in these places. It has also made vegetable growing possible in the Sahara desert, the Alpine regions of Russia as well as other places with harsh environmental conditions.
Combining aeroponics, greenhouse facilities, computer control and other innovative technologies, Xu won the second prize of China’s State Scientific and Technological Progress Award in 2009 with his project of the urban-type facility cultivation model.
After graduating from an agricultural college in Lishui in 1990, Xu started growing trees on barren hills that he contracted. He began exploring a way to realize the rapid propagation of plants through the control of temperature, humidity and lighting.
In 2001, he finally developed the non-tube rapid propagation technology. With this technology, farmers can grow over 1,000 peach trees on merely a mu of land, or around 667 square meters, which could yield fruits within a year.
The promotion of the technology brought Xu economic benefits that supported him in establishing his own research team and expanding R&D investment. His research team targeted every technology that could satisfy farmers’ demands.
Over the recent years, he has declined offers from many research institutions and enterprises, and kept staying in his hometown, because he wants to study deeper in agricultural research.
Apart from aeroponics, he has developed many other intelligent cultivation technologies, and invented China’s first domestic controlling computer for greenhouses, winning lots of certificates over the years.
Xu’s aeroponics technology has benefited a lot of farmers, including Chen Binye from Guangdong province. In a phone call, the man told Xu that thanks to the technology, it’s easy for Chen and his wife to cultivate crops on 100 mu of land compared to only five mu in the past, and the yield has more than tripled.
Xu provides free training for farmers every year to impart to them cultivation techniques of flowers, vegetables, fruits and grains, which has been joined by more than 10,000 people.
Xu’s team has promoted aeroponics technology to the market nationwide for free. So far, the technology has been introduced to more than 3,000 enterprises and scientific institutions, and employed by over 200,000 farmers.
Xu also livestreams agricultural training on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Yuan Longping, known as the “father of hybrid rice,” is the idol of Xu. Xu said he also wants to devote his entire life to agricultural studies, so as to benefit more farmers.
By Fabian Apechihin
The 2026 Constitution Amendment Bill has moved to the state level following its consideration by the National Assembly, paving the way for state legislatures to consider the proposed amendments.
The development comes amid renewed attention on constitutional reform and ongoing discussions over proposed changes to Nigeria’s governing framework.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has defended FCT Minister Nyesom Wike over allegations surrounding borrowing by the Federal Capital Territory Administration.
House spokesperson Akin Rotimi Agbese, speaking in an interview with Channels Television, rejected claims that Wike had undertaken borrowing without the knowledge or approval of the National Assembly.
Agbese said the FCT minister could not independently create a sovereign borrowing obligation, stressing that public borrowing is subject to constitutional, statutory and administrative procedures.
“Wike has committed no infraction in borrowings. There is no basis for the allegation that he has been borrowing money behind the back of the National Assembly,” Agbese said.
He explained that borrowing to finance infrastructure was not unlawful where the required approvals and procedures had been followed.
“Borrowing for infrastructure development is not unlawful in itself, provided the prescribed approvals and procedures are followed,” he added.
The House spokesperson further argued that an increase in the FCT’s debt profile should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of illegal borrowing, citing the scale of infrastructure projects being undertaken in Abuja under Wike.
According to Agbese, the key issue is whether the appropriate approvals were obtained for specific borrowing transactions, rather than simply whether the FCT’s overall debt profile has increased.
The comments come as scrutiny continues over public borrowing, infrastructure financing and the legal procedures governing government debt at both the federal and sub-national levels.
By Fabian Apechihin
The 2026 Constitution Amendment Bill has moved to the state level following its consideration by the National Assembly, paving the way for state legislatures to consider the proposed amendments.
The development comes amid renewed attention on constitutional reform and ongoing discussions over proposed changes to Nigeria’s governing framework.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has defended FCT Minister Nyesom Wike over allegations surrounding borrowing by the Federal Capital Territory Administration.
House spokesperson Akin Rotimi Agbese, speaking in an interview with Channels Television, rejected claims that Wike had undertaken borrowing without the knowledge or approval of the National Assembly.
Agbese said the FCT minister could not independently create a sovereign borrowing obligation, stressing that public borrowing is subject to constitutional, statutory and administrative procedures.
“Wike has committed no infraction in borrowings. There is no basis for the allegation that he has been borrowing money behind the back of the National Assembly,” Agbese said.
He explained that borrowing to finance infrastructure was not unlawful where the required approvals and procedures had been followed.
“Borrowing for infrastructure development is not unlawful in itself, provided the prescribed approvals and procedures are followed,” he added.
The House spokesperson further argued that an increase in the FCT’s debt profile should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of illegal borrowing, citing the scale of infrastructure projects being undertaken in Abuja under Wike.
According to Agbese, the key issue is whether the appropriate approvals were obtained for specific borrowing transactions, rather than simply whether the FCT’s overall debt profile has increased.
The comments come as scrutiny continues over public borrowing, infrastructure financing and the legal procedures governing government debt at both the federal and sub-national levels.
By Fabian Apechihin
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reaffirmed its intention to contest the 2027 presidential election despite the decision of Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid.
The party said Wike’s decision was personal and did not alter its position to participate in the presidential election with its candidate, Senator Sandy Onor. PDP National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, made the clarification on Wednesday.
According to the party, a recent conversation between Wike and Onor should not be interpreted as a political negotiation between the minister and the PDP.
“He told Nigerians that Sandy is his friend. And they only had a friendly discussion within the umbrella of friendship. So, that is just a personal discussion between him and his friend,” Mohammed said.
He added that Wike’s support for Tinubu did not prevent the PDP from fielding candidates for the presidential, governorship and legislative elections.
Wike had earlier clarified that his support in 2027 was specifically for Tinubu’s presidential re-election and did not amount to an agreement that the PDP would withdraw from other electoral contests. He also said he never promised that the PDP would abandon its candidates for governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections.
“I said I will support the President from day one. I never told Mr President I will join APC,” Wike said.
The minister also maintained that his proposed Rainbow Coalition was not an arrangement with the All Progressives Congress (APC), but rather a platform through which politicians from different parties could mobilise support for Tinubu’s re-election.
The issue has generated disagreement with some APC governors, who have expressed concern about a political arrangement that could affect the party’s candidates at other levels.
APC Progressive Governors’ Forum Chairman, Hope Uzodinma, said the governors would not support any alliance or arrangement that could weaken the APC or adversely affect its candidates.
Meanwhile, APC presidential campaign council spokesperson Ima Niboro has urged Wike and APC governors to end their public exchanges and concentrate on political mobilisation.
“When I said tone down the rhetoric, I do not mean stop working. Stop talking, go and work,” Niboro said.
He urged political leaders to strengthen their grassroots structures and engage directly with voters rather than continue exchanging statements in the media.
“All this shouting is not taking anybody anywhere. Go and work. Go and establish your authority on your political base,” he said.
2026 Constitution Amendment Bill Moves to States
2026 Constitution Amendment Bill Moves to States
2027: PDP Insists on Presidential Contest Despite Wike’s Support for Tinubu
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