BEIJING, December 25 (INP): Pakistani researcher Shahzad Munir who won Chinese national funding wants to help Pakistan citrus farmers, says a report published by Gwadar Pro on Friday.

"Pakistan is my home country, it is my priority to transfer our technology there," said Shahzad who is a senior researcher at Yunnan Agriculture University.

He and his team are working on fighting against the citrus yellow shoot and helped a lot of citrus farmers in China enhance their production.

Shahzad came to China in the year 2015. After getting a Ph.D. degree last year at Yunnan Agriculture University, Shahzad stayed in the university as a staff. "This year I am the project head and I won three funding. One is from the Yunnan government, one is from the Chinese Science Foundation and the last one is from the Chinese government, which is the national funding."

“To get the national fund is really difficult. There are only 100 candidates in China who got it this year. Your idea will be reviewed by the top scientists in China and a small mistake may get you rejected.” He said.

“Environment is really important,” Shahzad stressed. “The lab here opens all the time and the students are very hard working. At midnight, there are still a lot of students experimenting in the lab. My boss who is also my supervisor is strict with me. He motivated me a lot. During my stay here, I published more than 30 papers. "

“Our team studies citrus endophytes and citrus yellow shoot, we are the first one who does it around the world and it is a really interesting field. "According to Shahzad, the research result has been used in many places in China.

The citrus yellow shoot is also a very serious problem for countries all around the world. Shahzad Gwadar Pro that he has already talked with some big people from the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council. “We want to launch the program in Pakistan to control the disease.

This year we had planned to go to Pakistan to visit farms there to see how severe the disease there. But due to the COVID-19, our plan was canceled. We are also interested in setting a lab in Pakistan where students and teachers will work there.

We will teach Pakistan farmers to control the disease on large scale and help them boost production,” he added.

INP/JAVED