On 9 March, Dr. Mei Xurong, Vice President of CAAS, met with Dr. Achim Dobermann, Director of Rothamsted Research and his delegation. Both sides exchanged views on advancing cooperation on the Joint UK-China Centre for the Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture (CSIA).

Dr. Mei Xurong extended welcome to Dr. Dobermann for visiting CAAS once again, reviewed outcomes of cooperation and recognized progress made in developing CSIA. Dr. Mei Xurong noted that the sustainable use of limited agricultural resources, the improvement of crop and animal production efficiency, the reduction of wastes in the food chain, guaranteeing food safety and nutrition with existing farmland and in the background of climate change while minimizing adverse impact on the environment, are topics of global interests.

Since 2015, under the CSIA cooperation framework, the two sides have carried out collaborative research in four key areas including crop efficiency, soil management, new generations of integrated management of pests and diseases, agricultural innovation, practice and policy objectives, and established seed funding projects in several sub sectors; and good cooperation results have been generated. He hopes that bilateral cooperation could be furthered on the basis of existing CSIA cooperation. He suggested that both sides strengthen collaborative research on the utilization of genetic resources, efficient early warning, prevention and control of cross-border pests of agricultural animals and plants, climate-smart agriculture and sustainable intensification of agricultural systems. CAAS will continue supporting cooperation with CSIA and strengthening the exchange of visits and doctoral candidates.

Dr. Achim Dobermann said that technologies and methods of agriculture and food systems, healthy soil, plant and microbial systems, genetic editing and its application in crop production, big data analysis, monitoring and application are key research directions of the Rothamsted Research. Rothamsted Research and CAAS enjoy a solid foundation for cooperation and have achieved fruitful results in the CSIA cooperation. He hopes that more researchers and doctoral candidates can visit Rothamsted Research and engage themselves deeply into the research of various projects. He looks forward to sustained and higher-level cooperation between the two sides.

Dr. Liu Chunming, Director of the Institute of Crop Sciences and Dr. Zhang Huijie, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Cooperation attended the meeting.

By Zhang Shuang (zhangshuang@caas.cn)