On December 9-10, Agricultural Information Institute and Center for International Agricultural Research of CAAS co-organized the Inclusive Modern Agriculture Development Driven by Big Data Workshop in Beijing. Dr. Sun Tan, Vice President of CAAS and Mr. Wang Xiaobing, Director General of the Information Center of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) attended the ceremony and delivered keynote speeches. Dr. Nie Fengying, Deputy Director of AII and CIAR, CAAS chaired the workshop.

Scholars and experts from the Department of International Cooperation of MARA, Institute of Agriculture Resource and Regional Planning, Oil Crops Research Institute and Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute of CAAS, China Agricultural University, University of Nottingham, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agriculture Development etc. also participated in the workshop.

In the keynote speech titled Big Data-Driven Innovation in China’s Agriculture, Dr. Sun Tan, Vice President of CAAS introduced the impact of big data technology on agriculture, the intelligent agriculture application in China as well as CAAS’s endeavors and future plan in big data research and application. CAAS has built up national fundamental and long-term research infrastructure for agricultural data collection, regional big data governance and analysis, as well as text data mining, etc. It also accomplished innovation on machine vision-based technologies and tools. CAAS will continue to implement “Digital Research Platform Strategy 2.0”, contributing to an open, shared and collaborative global agricultural research platform.

The workshop invited well-known speakers from home and abroad to present reports on agricultural informatization in China, technological innovation and application of smart agriculture in China, China's live pig trade digitization, big data-driven intelligent design of crops, three-dimensional traceability ecosystem of agricultural product based on block chain, the use of machine learning approaches in a regional plant disease epidemic in Southeast Asia, sustainable management of nature supported by time related satellite images, as well as the introduction of CAAS Science Technology Innovation Programme (CAASTIP) and Global Challenges Research Fund. Commentators also provided insights comments on those reports.

This workshop was held both on-site and online. Around 50 on-site participants from China, 20 international audience from Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, Brazil, New Zealand etc. attended the workshop on line.

By Dong Jiaxin (dongjiaxin@caas.cn)