Beijing, May 24 (China Economic Net) - "Currently, there are 318 overseas students in our school, of which 90% are from Belt and Road countries," said Luo Jun, vice president of Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University (NWAFU) said at the Promotion conference of SCO demonstration base for Agricultural technology exchange and training. He also told us that they are planning to establish an alumni association for Pakistani students who graduated from NWAFU.

"We have more than 100 Pakistan graduates who have gone back to Pakistan, many of them are now working in colleges and universities. They are contributing a lot to the agriculture talent training of Pakistan. We hope that through the alumni association, they can play their role in improving Pakistan agriculture in a better way." Luo Jun said, adding that NWAFU has established overseas demonstration areas in Pakistan, where their alumni provided a lot of help.

"Pakistan's agriculture has many similarities with China's northwestern region. They both have large arid and semi-arid regions. Some of our technical achievements can be easily promoted in Pakistan. We have also established some cooperation with universities." Luo Jun said. The water-saving irrigation system and smart agriculture technology are two of the major areas that the SCO trying to promote in the SCO countries, which can also greatly benefit Pakistan agriculture.

This month, SCO Agricultural Universities Alliance was established by NWAFU. "The Shanghai Cooperation Organization University was established in 2007. At that time, it had 7 research directions. The establishment of the SCO Agricultural Universities Alliance marks the eighth direction, which is the development of modern agriculture. We currently unite 19 universities in the SCO countries in the alliance, including 8 top agricultural universities in China." Luo Jun said. Among the 19 universities, 3 are in Pakistan. "We want to co-establish majors in modern agriculture or areas where the SCO countries have consistent needs. Combining with the overseas student project, cultivate talents in the direction of modern agriculture."