Institute of Plant Protection of Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, situated in the historic city Baoding in Hebei, was founded in 1958. The mission of the institute is to make lasting contributions to improve production of high quality and high yielding plants and to protect agricultural ecosystems through innovations that make damaging pests under economic control.
The research activities of the institute include:
Survey of pest occurrence and damage to crops
Collection and identification of major crop germplasm with pest resistance and breeding of pest resistant cultivars
Biological control with natural enemies, antagonistic microorganisms and insect parasitic nematodes
Application techniques for decreasing pesticide residues, maximising environment protection and delaying pesticide resistance
Integrated pest management
Promotion and extension of new techniques of plant protection
Currently, 88 employees, including 57 research scientists and 31support staffs, work in the institute. More than 20 postgraduates and 30 undergraduate students conduct their research projects in the PPI each year. The institute has a total of 4000 m2 of laboratory space, with 1000 m2 used for fermentation of microbial pesticides, 500 m2 for the mass rearing of parasitic insects and 400 m2 of greenhouses for bioassays. About 950 items of laboratory equipment are available for molecular and genetic techniques, protein purification, pathogen detection, microbial and chemical pesticide development and pesticide residue monitoring.