Helping to develop organic herb industry
Print Edition
Amway continues to build on projects at its botanical research center, contributing to the growth of Shanghai as a leading ecological city with sustainable development.
The Amway Botanical Research Center, which was established in Wuxi of Jiangsu Province in 2015 after six years’ preparation, has developed into a platform which integrates functions including research, communication, exhibition and education.
China faces extensive and complex pollution, among which agricultural pollution is one of the worst. Also, the heavy use of pesticides, fertilizers and growth hormones are a leading cause of lowering the quality of produce and have even caused serious food and drug insecurity.
The Amway Botanical Research Center was set up to explore ways to boost the sustainable development of organic Chinese herb-planting, using the latest technology.
Preparation took six years from 2009 to 2015, including choosing a location, planning and design, construction, and preparation of the land.
The Center spent three years choosing a site from over 40 possibilities. The choice was made after strict and comprehensive evaluations of indicators of key factors such as environment, transportation, culture, pesticide residue in the soil, heavy metal pollution and water and air quality.
“Amway took soil samples from 300 plots selected in Wuxi New District, passing them on to leading organizations in China and in the US for tests. Results showed that the parcel of land is of exceptionally good quality, quite suitable for organic planting research,” said Chen Jia, vice president of the Center and of Amway China Research & Development and technical regulatory activities. It took another three years to prepare the land.
The Center has signed a collaborative contract with Zhu Zhaoliang, an academic with the Nanjing Pedology Institute at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The two partners will cooperate on a facility for academics where they can work on developing organic planting methods for Chinese herbs.
“Amway has a great influence in the industry, and its commitment to the concept of sustainable development has met with huge success,” said Jiang Xin, deputy director of the Nanjing Pedology Institute. “The collaboration between Amway and the Institute can form a formidable coalition. It can expand the traditional research field of soil, and will boost the whole industry, for sure.”
The Amway Center comprises advanced research laboratories, intelligent research greenhouses and farms over 33 hectares, equipped with sophisticated scientific instruments and modern agricultural machinery. It has also attracted leading experts to study soil nutrition, plant physiology, germplasm resources and cultivation.
The Center runs several research projects on organic planting of Chinese herbs. It has introduced more than 100 herbs and set up a germplasm repository for important medicinal plants. It has also published several research papers and applied for many patents and has been invited to join the government’s 13th five-year key technology research and development project.
“The agricultural and heavy metal pollution in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are highly loaded and extremely complex,” said Shi Weiming, chief scientist of the Pedology Institute’s pollution prevention and control technology demonstration project in the lower reaches of the Yangtze. “It is necessary to combine leading research institutions and benchmarking enterprises to explore sustainable development.”
The center is taking advantage of its nutrition brand Nutrilite’s more than 10 years of global experience in organic farming as part of efforts to solve the agricultural pollution issue. Over the next five years, the Amway Center will promote innovation and technology.
In this way, it can continue its contribution to the fight against agricultural pollution and support Shanghai’s sustainable development.
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