On December 22, 2011, Dr. LI Jia-yang, President of CAAS met with chief representatives from China Offices of FAO, WFP and IFAD, exchanging views on strengthening cooperation in agricultural S&T.

LI noted that CAAS always regards FAO, WFP and IFAD as important partners. As parts of the UN system, FAO, WFP and IFAD play an important role in supporting global agricultural development, ensuring food security and eliminating world poverty. Meanwhile, CAAS has made significant contributions to China’s agricultural development, which has presented remarkable achievements in the last 30 years. CAAS is willing to strengthen cooperation with the three organizations continuously through jointly undertaking projects, organizing workshops and training programs in many aspects, such as crops and livestock breeding, animal diseases control, biotechnology, agricultural resources, agricultural information and economic policy, etc. LI emphasized that CAAS values the opportunities to work with international organizations in maintaining sustainable development and food security worldwide.

Mr. Percy Misika, FAO Representative to China, DPR Korea and Mongolia, Mr. Brett Rierson, Director of WFP China, and Mr. SUN Yin-hong, Country Presence Officer of IFAD in China all agreed that CAAS, China’s national research institution in agricultural S&T, has unique advantages in expertise, technologies and research resources and that its many activities to share China’s experiences with other developing countries can promote agricultural development, which is most appreciated and encouraged. The representatives hoped that CAAS will make more contributions to the realization of the Millennium Development Goals and that their cooperation with CAAS will be further developed in the near future.