Negating the 8 hour time difference thanks to some creative scheduling by the conference organisers, Professor Ian Dodd (Lancaster Environment Centre) delivered a plenary lecture “Exploiting plant physiology for sustainable development” at the 30th Malaysian Society of Plant Physiology Conference to close the event for 17 November 2020. After considering some fundamental plant physiological mechanisms regulating plant water use, he considered the application of different irrigation techniques within the context of sustainable development. Taking advantage of the SHui slide deck made available to all project participants he explained the project’s ethos, and considered the difficulties of technology transfer within the context of partial rootzone drying (a theme of his recent webinar). The session concluded with several audience questions / observations about the use of PRD in different countries and alternate wetting & drying of rice in Malaysia.