At the invitation of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), Tang Huajun, member of the Party Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), led a delegation to Italy, Austria and Switzerland from November 18th to 27th. During this visit, he conducted in-depth communication with the heads of the above-mentioned international organizations. A number of consensuses were reached, and agricultural scientific and technological cooperation between CAAS and international organizations was further strengthened.

In Italy, the delegation visited FAO and held talks with Dr. Qu Dongyu, Director-General of FAO and Ms. Maria Helena Semedo, Deputy Director-General of FAO. Both parties reached multiple consensuses on smart agriculture, soil management, and FAW prevention and control. The Extension and Amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding between FAO and CAAS was singed on this occasion, which clarified the work plan and main cooperation topics of the two parties from 2020-2021. Furthermore, the delegation also visited Bioversity International in Rome, where the two sides negotiated on strengthening cooperation in the fields of germplasm resource utilization, agricultural biodiversity conservation and personnel training.

During the visit in Vienna, Tang held talks with Najat Mokhtar, Deputy Director General of IAEA. During their meeting, both sides agreed to continuously strengthen communications on the basis of existing cooperation and signed the Agreement between IAEA and CAAS concerning the designation of CAAS as an IAEA Collaborating Center. This Collaborating Center will greatly promote cooperation between the two parties in the fields of food safety and environmental protection, soil and water resources management, crop mutant breeding, animal production and health, and agricultural nuclear emergency preparedness and response, as well as stimulating collaboration on nuclear agriculture between China and other Asian members of IAEA.

In Switzerland, the delegation held talks with Mr. Yi Xiaozhun, Deputy Director General of WTO. The two sides reached an intention to collaborate in the areas of South-South cooperation, information and digital agriculture, agricultural trade policy research and so on. The delegation also met with Mr. Zhang Wenjian, Assistant Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), who agreed to strengthen cooperation on climate smart agriculture. In addition, the delegation visited Agroscope in Bern and communicated with its CEO, Eva Reinhard, who agreed to further expand cooperation, enhance talent exchange and capacity-building, and discussed the possibility on tripartite cooperation with CAAS and MARA-CABI European Laboratory.

DGs of the Department of International Cooperation of CAAS, Institute of Plant Protection (IPP), Institute of vegetables and Flowers (IVF), Institute of grassland research (IGR) joint this mission.

By Li Zhuobei (lizhuobei@caas.cn)