Invited and financed by University of Alberta, Canada, Prof. Hao Feng, with a delegation of five participated in the UofA-NWAFU Joint Workshop on Agricultural Water Management held from 1st to 8th May , 2016, in Edmonton.  

The delegation were warmly welcomed by Dr. Cen Huang, Executive Director of International Relations and Recruitment, and Assistant Vice-President (International) and Prof. Stan Blade, Dean of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences. On behalf of UofA, Prof. Blade gave his gratitude to Prof. Feng for sponsoring Dr. Miles Dyck’s visit to NWAFU in 2015. Also, on behalf of NWAFU Dr. Feng presented Dr. Dyck the certificate of Visiting Professor of NWAFU.

During the workshop, scientists from two sides introduced their latest research regarding the topic of water resources, farming, river basin issues, and irrigation scheduling. Prof. Feng gave a presentation on Water challenge in China and its adaption in semiarid and arid areas. He emphasized on the uneven distribution of fresh water and arable land in China, overuse of blue water and the decrease of underground water level, irrational crop growth pattern, low crop WUE and climate change. He also put forward the counter measures to cope with the water shortage issue in terms of biology, farming techniques, engineering and management respectively.

After the workshop, the delegation was invited to take a field tour of Bow river irrigation district. The whole visit was successful, scientists showed great interest in the talks and discussed on the possible collaboration in the future. The two sides formed a preliminary collaborative proposal in crop modeling and canola research. Finally, Dr. Feng invited Prof. S.S Malhi, Dr. Miles Dyck and Dr. Ludovic J.A. Capo-chichi to visit NWAFU in June, 2016 to work on more specific research project.