Pakistani committed to banana research

HAIKOU — In a banana field at Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in Sanya, South China's Hainan province, Waseem Raza spends his mornings meticulously inspecting stems, leaves and fruit clusters before plunging into late-night hours in the lab, peering through microscopes and analyzing data until well past midnight.

Raza, 45, a scientist from Pakistan, has devoted his career to combating banana diseases. His journey in China began in 2005 when he arrived for doctoral studies at Nanjing Agricultural University. After graduating in December 2009, he stayed on as a lecturer at the university for 12 years. This year, he joined the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences as a senior researcher, working in a laboratory there.

His research focuses on soil ecology, soil microbiology and plant-microbe interactions to help tackle Banana Fusarium Wilt, a devastating fungal disease known as "banana cancer", which once wreaked havoc on China's banana industry and caused production to plummet.