Professor Fusuo Zhang, an internationally renowned expert in plant nutrition, has committed his career spanning more than 40 years to education and scientific research aiming to solve agricultural production problems for smallholder farmers. He is a major contributor to establishment of the disciplines of Plant Nutrition as well as Agricultural Resources and Environment in China; he significantly expanded the quality and range of research work in plant nutrition, greatly promoted the development of these disciplines in China for talent training, science & technology innovation, and social development, as well as contributed immensely to the development of global plant nutrition research. He discovered an importance of plant root exudates for nutrient acquisition and developed root-zone nutrient management and a series of integrated soil-crop system management technologies to increase crop yield and nutrient-use efficiency, while reducing environmental footprint. He and his network of partners created a unique agro-technology service model named “Science and Technology Backyard” (STB), providing services to farmers at zero distance, zero time lag, zero threshold, and zero cost. He formulated new technology application models of “soil testing by government, fertilizer formulation by agricultural expert, fertilizer product manufacturing by industry, and joint services”. Through the platform, 20.9 million farmers managed to achieve a net increase of 33 Mt grains and a decrease of 1.2 Mt nitrogen fertilizer use and 0.3 Mt N losses during the 10-year period, equivalent to US$12.2 billion value across the area of 37.7 million ha. He has published 588 papers, including Nature and Science (6 papers), and PNAS (4 papers) (H-index = 105). He was selected as Academician of The World Academy of Sciences, Academician of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He obtained 2014 Award for Agricultural Science from The World Academy of Science, 2018 Innovation Award of National Poverty Alleviation Award, and 2020 GCHERA World Agriculture Prize. He has promoted high-level cooperation between China and Africa in food security and green development of agriculture.
