YANG Hui, deputy director-general of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Science and Technology, led a visiting group on May 19 to the Changtu Modern Agricultural Experimental Station operated by the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where they inspected ongoing black soil conservation projects and the application of agricultural technologies in Northeast China.

BAO Xuelian, deputy head of the station, and NIE Zhiwen, deputy head of the institute’s science and technology division, accompanied the visit.

At the Liaoning Black Soil Protection Science Exhibition Hall, the visiting group received an overview of local cropping systems, soil conditions and the progress achieved in black soil conservation in Changtu county through presentations and exhibition materials.

During a field inspection at the station’s experimental demonstration plots, Dr BAO briefed the visitors on the station’s development history, research infrastructure and long-term monitoring sites. The visiting group inspected several major research facilities, including soil lysimeters, which are devices used to monitor water movement and nutrient transport in soils, and an eddy covariance observation system for tracking greenhouse gas exchange between farmland and the atmosphere.

The visitors also inspected a platform designed for the enclosed storage and anaerobic treatment of liquid and solid livestock manure. Anaerobic treatment refers to the microbial decomposition of organic waste in oxygen-free conditions, a process widely used to reduce pollution and recycle agricultural waste into usable resources.

YANG and other officials focused on the practical application of conservation tillage and manure resource-utilization technologies in Changtu county, asking detailed questions about their adoption scale and contributions to crop yield improvement.

During discussions with research staff, YANG emphasized the importance of applying scientific advances to agricultural production and expanding technology use in real farming conditions. The visiting group also exchanged views with researchers on technical bottlenecks, future development directions and the industrialization potential of black soil conservation technologies, while expressing strong recognition of the station’s work in soil conservation and agricultural innovation.