On November 11, 2020, "APEC Training Course on Crop Growth Model Theory and Application & the 7th Agricultural Model Development and Application Seminar" was successfully held at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IARRP, CAAS). This event was supported by China Consortium for Agro-systems Modeling and funded by the International Cooperation Department of  Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and  Ministry of Finance of China. The training course and seminar was also streamed live online. More than 600 participants, including experts, scholars and graduate students from APEC member economies such as Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore and Thailand as well as domestic institutes and universities attended the meeting. Wu Wenbin, Deputy Director General of IARRP, CAAS, presided over the opening ceremony. Ms. Wang Jing, Investigator of International Organization Division of International Cooperation Department of Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Hao Weiping, Deputy Director General of International Cooperation Bureau of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences made speeches successively.

This event consists of academic report and crop growth model training. In the academic presentation section, Prof. Feng Liping from China Agricultural University, Prof. He Yingbin from IARRP, CAAS, Prof. Jin Xiuliang from the Crop Science Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Tao Fulu, fromInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Associate Prof. Liu Bing from Nanjing Agricultural University, and Associate Prof. Kang Mengzhen from Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences made academic reports respectively around the themes of "Progress of Agricultural Modelling and development of AgroStudio ", "Spatial pattern change and crop planting suitability were analyzed based on crop growth model ","Crop phenotyping platform and data assimilation of crop models and multi-source remote sensing ", " Design climate smart agricultural system by modelling and big data", " Model-based prediction of crop productivity and impact assessment" and "Functional-Structural Plant Modeling and Applications in Agronomy". Prof. He Jianqiang from Northwest Agriculture and Forest University and Dr. Zheng Bangyou of Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation respectively expounded the theory and application of DSSAT model and APSIM model in the training session, respectively.

By He Yingbin (heyingbin@caas.cn)