The 2020 General Assembly and Cooperation Forum of Silkroad Agricultural Education and Research Innovation Alliance was held in NWAFU

The 2020 General Assembly and Cooperation Forum of Silkroad Agricultural Education and Research Innovation Alliance was held in NWAFU

On 23rd October, the 2020 General Assembly and Cooperation Forum of Silkroad Agricultural Education and Research Innovation Alliance was held in NWAFU. Mr. Krzysztof Szoszkiewicz, President of Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland; Mr. Vasily Kochurko, Rector of Baranovichi State University, Belarus; Mr. Terex Jespolov, President of Kazakhstan National Agricultural University, Kazakhstan; Muhammad Ashraf, Vice-chancellor of The University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan; Mr. Uktam Umurzakov, Rector of Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers, Uzbekistan; Mr. Jiang Pingan, President of Xinjiang Agricultural University; Mr. Hu Feng, Vice-president of Nanjing Agricultural University; Mr. Qing Ping, Vice-president of Huazhong Agricultural University; Mr. Qiu Rongliang, Vice-President of South China Agricultural University; Professor Wei Gehong, the vice-president of Northwest A&F University and other distinguished university leaders at home and abroad attended the opening ceremony. Professor Luo Jun, Vice-president of Northwest A&F university hosted the opening ceremony.

President Wu Pute addressed the assembly (Screenshot by Zhou Tianhong)

Vice-president Luo Jun hosted the opening ceremony and presented the work report of the alliance to all participants

Vice-president Wei Gehong hosted the general assembly

The whole event was held via ZOOM. More than 200 experts and scholars from Poland, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Italy, the Netherlands, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Serbia, Mongolia, Kenya and China participated in the forum.

In his speech, Wu Pute extended a warm welcome to the distinguished guests from different countries, the alliance members and representatives who would soon become the alliance members. He mentioned that since the establishment of the alliance in 2016, four forums have been held successfully in Yangling, China, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Novi Sad, Serbia, and Poznan, Poland. Now, the alliance has developed into one of the “Belt and Road” alliances with substantial influence and headed by Chinese universities; and it has been recognized as one of the first batch of national agricultural science and technology innovation alliances by MARA of China. The series of fruitful work carried out by the alliance have won the approval and support of the countries along the Silk Road. After briefly reviewing the achievements of the alliance since its establishment, Wu Pute hopes that all members will continue to take a cooperative approach and work together to promote broader, deeper and more sophisticated agricultural cooperation among countries along the “Belt and Road” to make greater contributions to improving the global food security and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of global agriculture.

Krzysztof Szoszkiewicz, Terex Jespolov, Uktam Umurzakov, Vasily Kochurko, Jiang Pingan, Hu Feng, Qing Pin and other university leaders from home and abroad addressed the assembly. They introduced the work that centered around the Belt and Road initiative carried out by their universities under the framework of the alliance and expressed their good wishes to continuously promote the sustainable development of international cooperation.

After the opening ceremony, the 2020 General Assembly of Silkroad Agricultural Education and Research Innovation Alliance was held.

Luo Jun reported on the achievements of the alliance in building cooperation platforms, talent training, scientific research, technology extension, people-to-people exchanges, think tank construction, etc. since the establishment of the alliance, and proposed the next work plan for deepening cooperation. The SAERIA Charter (revised version) and SAERIA Action Plan were reviewed and approved during the assembly. Meanwhile, Baha 'din Zakaria University, Pakistan; Belarus National Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Baranovichi State University, Belarus; University of Teramo, Italy and South China Agricultural University were accepted as SAERIA members. China Agricultural University, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan; Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers and Central Asia and South Caucasus Consortium of Agricultural universities for Development were co-opted as SAERIA Council Members.

Since the establishment of the alliance, the number of members has grown from 59 universities and scientific research institutions in 12 countries in 2016 to 85 in 17 countries in 2020, involving key agricultural universities, research institutions and manufacturing companies. The Alliance has jointly established 8 overseas agricultural science and technology demonstration parks in five countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, demonstrating the planting of 115 crop varieties in 13 categories from our university, Shanxi Agricultural University, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other alliance members. Nine varieties of 4 types of crops suitable for local production were screened out, of which 2 wheat varieties entered regional trials of national crop varieties in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. SAERIA, served as a platform, encouraged the establishment of China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture and 3 national research centers including Africa Research Center, Kazakhstan Research Center and Sino-Russian Agricultural Science and Technology Development Policy Research Center; published more than 10 books such as "A Comparative Study on Agriculture between China and Kazakhstan", providing data and theoretical support for agricultural cooperation in countries along the route.