From May 26 to June 2, 2019, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences exchange visits on precision agriculture in Australia was successfully completed. This is the first academic exchange activities that the Center for International Agricultural Research of the CAAS organized all relevant research institutes of the Academy to participate with the support of the academy's leaders.

Based on the early professional consultation on overseas investment in precision agriculture for CIC Overseas, the Center for International Agricultural Research jointly planned and organized this exchange event with the investors CIC Overseas and Australia's Macquarie Company in accordance with the cooperation agreement. It aims to promote the research level of precision agriculture in our institute and enhance the application effect of precision agriculture technology in the green production and efficiency enhancement technology system. 10 experts from 6 units such as Institute of Crop Sciences, Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Information Institute, China Nation Rice Research Institute, and Grassland Research Institute of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization participated in exchange activities.

This exchange event focused on the application of technology such as soil investigation, precision operation of agricultural machinery, precision seeding, variable fertilization, precision pesticide application, intelligent decision-making, Internet of Things, drones, machine learning. The delegation held the opening ceremony of the precision agriculture exchange event in Sydney, learned about Macquarie's agricultural investment situation, visited Viridis Ag, an agricultural company under Macquarie. They held discussions and discussions with technical staff, and went to multiple plots of land on two farms which are located in Wagga Wagga City, Eastern Australia and Owen County, Western Australia for on-site learning.

The person in charge of Viridis Ag Company made a special introduction on farm distribution, planting plans, main production technologies, investment status, and precision agriculture data management systems and information tools. He also gave an in-depth explanation of precision agricultural management technologies and information tools. Precision agricultural management technologies include fully mechanized land restoration (lime and gypsum conditioning, deep plowing, and harrowing), reduced tillage and stubble retention, inter-annual and inter-plot rotation, Variable input of agricultural inputs, fixed-track cultivation, harvest path control, navigation machinery control, etc.; Information technology service tools include Agworld, pct agcloud and MyJohnDeere Platform. Experts from our institute had in-depth exchanges with the person in charge of Viridis Ag Company during the on-site investigation. The person in charge of the agricultural department at the headquarters of Macquarie Company and the person in charge of the overseas project of China Investment Corporation also participated in the investigation.

After the activity, the Center for International Agricultural Research conducted a satisfaction survey on the exchange activity. Participating experts expressed that they were deeply impressed by the high-precision operation and input management of large commercial farms with profit targets. By understanding the understanding and needs of different entities such as investment companies on agricultural production and agricultural production processes, they gained new insights into the development direction of agricultural scientific research. At the same time, they proposed the desire to increase the discussion time and show more practical production operation videos of Four Seasons, and hoped to have the opportunity to cooperate with Australian companies. As the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China of agricultural foreign cooperation science and technology support and talent training base, the Center for International Agricultural Research of CAAS will further promote relevant work based on demand feedback.