Russian expert seeks sustainable soil solutions in China

Vladimir Matychenkov researches paddy with his Chinese colleagues in Changsha, Hunan province.

He has done research with Chinese colleagues in the academy and aims to use the results to help the region construct a more efficient and ecologically safer rice production system.

Matychenkov frequently makes onsite checks in the suburbs of Changsha to make sure that his findings match the real situation in the region.

Through tests from two fields, he found that using silicon fertilizer can help reduce plants' absorption of heavy metals such as cadmium by more than 50 percent while increasing production of rice by more than 20 percent.

Yuan Longping, a scientist famous for his work on hybrid rice in the province, showed an interest in the findings and allowed Matychenkov to carry out related tests on his experimental fields.

Matychenkov is excited that a bigger project involving him and the Hunan Research Institute of Economy and Geology has started this year. The project includes six experimental fields on the Xiangjiang River Plain in Hunan, aiming to test the function of silicon fertilizer in reducing the absorption of heavy metals.

"If the final tests are successful, silicon fertilizer will be officially put to use in the region," says Matychenkov. "My dream is to promote organic agriculture. Silicon fertilizers have both economic and environmental significance."

Matychenkov, who travels around the world for conferences, has attended several academic meetings and published six research papers on behalf of the Hunan laboratory so far.

Having spent nearly a decade working in the United States, Australia and Africa, he admits he is used to working in a foreign country. But he still finds his experience in China special.

"In other places, it was usually the case that I had to realize my ideas totally by myself. But in China, I get great support from my local colleagues," he says.