Strengthening the construction of Center for International Agricultural Research and vigorously promoting the "Going Global" of agricultural science and technology
On September 18th 2016, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences organized a seminar on "going global" in agricultural science and technology to serve the diplomatic ideas of the country's "Belt and Road" initiative, "strengthening friendly cooperation with neighboring countries", the agricultural "going global" strategy, and promoting the construction of Center for International Agricultural Research(CIAR) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS). The seminar aimed to further review the technologies and products of each research institute, provided basic supports for the "going global" of agricultural science and technology to achieved the goal of strengthening the overall and systematic planning of the "going global" of agricultural science and technology of the entire CAAS, explore and innovate the operating mechanism of agricultural science and technology, and pragmatically promote the "going global" of agricultural science and technology. Vice President of the CAAS, Wu Kongming, attended the seminar. Wu Kongming pointed out in his speech that China's agricultural development has achieved tremendous achievements, with a "twelve consecutive increases" in grain production. However, the resource and environmental challenges faced by agriculture have become increasingly prominent, and the main contradiction has shifted from insufficient production to structural contradiction. Under the continuous deepening influence of the international agricultural market, it is necessary to coordinate the use of two markets and two types of resources, promote the "going global" of agricultural technology, and provide technological support for the reform of China's agricultural industry structure supply.
Wu Kongming emphasized that promoting agricultural technology to go global is not only a necessity for China's agricultural development, but also serves China's economic development. To this end, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has established the Center for International Agricultural Research, with the aim of playing an important role in the strategic decision-making and scientific and technological support system construction of agriculture's "going global" strategy. As a national agricultural research institution, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has taken solid steps in the field of hybrid crop production, animal and plant protection, facility horticulture, agricultural mechanization, rural energy, and other fields of technology going global. In the future, CAAS should better seize the new opportunities of international agricultural science and technology cooperation, further improve the operation mechanism construction of overseas agricultural research centers, form a complete technical system and full industry chain of hard and soft technologies, condense and propose the action plan for "going global" of agricultural science and technology, mobilize agricultural research resources and forces from the entire CAAS, the whole country, and even abroad, make new contributions to addressing food security in China and other countries. At the seminar, Dr. Nie Fengying from the Agricultural Information Institute reported on the overall progress of the CIAR. Typical speeches were given by the Institute of Plant Protection, National Rice Research Institute, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Institute of Cotton Research, Biogas Institute of MARA, Institute of Vegetables and Flowers, and Nanjing Institute of Agricultural Mechanization of MARA on the "going global" situation of various agricultural technologies. The attended leaders and experts spoke freely and systematically sorted out the current situation and existing problems of CAAS agricultural technology going global situation. They conducted in-depth discussions on strengthening the construction of CIAR, fully leveraging their role as think tanks, information service platforms, building an international agricultural technology talent team, and innovating the institutional mechanism of agricultural technology going global.
It was reported that in order to leverage the technological advantages of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and build a high-end think tank that serves the country's overseas agricultural strategy, and promote the "going global" of agricultural technology, under the unified deployment of the party group, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences prepared and established CIAR to integrate technology industry, policy support, information services, and talent cultivation. On January 21st, 2016, CIAR was unveiled. Since its establishment, under the support and guidance of leaders at all levels such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology, focusing on serving the "the Belt and Road" and agricultural "going global" strategy, CIAR has actively established contacts and carried out cooperation with member units of ministerial joint conferences, provincial scientific research institutes and domestic and foreign agricultural enterprises with the mode of "small core, large network". CIAR has achieved good results in going global in public information platforms and services, technological integration innovation, and foreign-related training.
More than 70 leaders and experts from Department of Agricultural Technology Transfer of CAAS , Graduate School of CAAS, and 31 other research institutes attended the seminar.