China Science Award goes to predatory mite breeder

Date:01-13-2009

Dr. Zhang Yanxuan, professor of Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and one of China’s top researchers studying predatory mites, has been awarded second prize at China's 2008 State Top Scientific and Technological Awards.

Zhang has been studying mites for 27 years. She introduced a foreign predatory mite named Amblyseius cucumeris Oudemans into China in the mid 1990s to kill other mites that were destroying crops. Predatory mites successfully killed the mites that were eating bamboo in 1998; a year later, Zhang began expanded her biological control method to more than 20 species of crops including citrus, tea, hops, cotton, and apple.?Since then, her bio-control method has been used on 191,000 hectares of land in more than 20 Chinese provinces, helping to reduce the use of pesticides by more than 3,200 tons.

In 2005, Zhang set up Fujian Yanxuan Biocontrol Technology Company, China's first mite-breeding enterprise. The company now produces 800 billion predatory mites per year, sold around the world.

"The predators have been exported to Holland and Germany since February of last year," said Zhang. So far, 30 batches delivered to the two countries equaled about 700 million mites. "We are going to export them to US, too."

"Biological control can reduce the use of pesticides by 60% to 80%, increasing the produce value by five to ten percent. It also cuts production costs by about 70%," she said.