On March 14, Prof.Tang Huajun，President of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) met with Dr. Matthew Morell, Director General of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and his delegation. The two sides exchanged views on further cooperation. Prof. Wu Kongming, Vice President of CAAS, attended the meeting.

Tang pointed out that as the first CGIAR center to cooperate with China, IRRI have made great contribution to China’s agricultural development through bilateral cooperation, which casts a great impact both home and abroad. China is ready to further deepen joint efforts with IRRI by providing technique support to the rice producing countries across South East Asia and Africa, under the framework of “One Belt and One Road” initiative and “South-South Cooperation”. To deepen and strengthen the cooperation serving for global food safety, the both sides should further broaden the scale of capacity building, germplasm resource exchange, as well as the cooperation involving CRPs, etc.

Dr. Morell stated that, while the new challenges like climate change and environmental degradation emerges to rice breeding, the collaborative opportunity is rising too. He suggested the both sides make a better use of existing joint platform to establish a long-term and concrete mechanism to explore new potential in post-harvest management, processing, etc.

Dr. Feng Dongxin, Director General of International Cooperation, Dr. Lu Tiegang, Deputy Director General of Institute of Biotechnology, attended the meeting.