CUHK Research: Changing the world

Climate smart and sustainable agriculture Groundbreaking research, written on the land Lam Hon-ming Choh-Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an important framework for CUHK to organise its research enterprise. Life Sciences Professor Lam Hon-ming’s research into climate smart soybean cultivation on marginal land is impacting multiple SDGs – from ending hunger, to improving nutrition and food security, to halting and reversing climate change, restoring degraded land and promoting gender equality. As Director of the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology at CUHK, he is also leading groundbreaking experiments in space. Humanity’s challenge In an era when climate change and extreme weather threaten the survival of smallholder farmers everywhere, CUHK is renowned for work led by Professor Lam Hon-ming on the soybean and how to improve its climate resilience. Using advanced genomic and genetic studies, Professor Lam’s team pioneered genomi c re s ea rch on soybean s eed resources. By decoding the genomes of 31 wild and cultivated soybeans, and with subsequent detailed analysis, they discovered the most important gene for salt tolerance. In collaboration with breeders in mainland China, this information was successfully used to breed three new non-GMO soybean cultivars with double tolerance for drought and salt. Soybean cultivation is part of the climate change solution for sustainable agriculture 58