On November 15th, 2017, Prof. Tang Huajun, President of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), met with Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation, and exchanged views with him on strengthening collaboration in the fields like selection of recipients of the World Food Prize and the Borlaug Field Award and Youth programs.

Prof. Tang introduced to Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn the latest progress of China’s agricultural science and technology and the significant role it played in safeguarding China’s food security. He noted that since the reform and opening up, China has made conspicuous achievements in agricultural development, not only effectively ensuring food security for over 1.3 billion people but also making great contribution to global poverty reduction. It’s pointed out on the 19th CPC National Congress held in October that the problems of rural areas, agriculture and farmers still have a central place on the party’s work agenda, which requires us to prioritize the development of agriculture and rural areas. In the process of China’s agricultural development, there have emerged a large number of prominent scientists in policy making, research, extension and other sectors who are playing supportive role in promoting global sustainable development and are eligible for the World Food Prize. Prof. Tang expected the two sides to keep close contact and endeavor to nominate more agricultural scientists from China for the selection of the World Food Prize and the Borlaug Field Award.

Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn expressed that he’s an old friend of China and a witness of China’s great accomplishments in innovation and extension of agricultural science and technologies, which, along with the achievements in other sectors, he admired a lot. He gave a detailed introduction of the two awards and totally agreed with Prof. Tang in encouraging more agricultural scientists from China to be nominated for the selection of them. Besides, Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn invited CAAS to send representatives to participate in the related annual Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in 2018 and give a topical speech by then.

The two sides also exchanged views on youth exchange programs. It’s known that there have been 1-2 international students sent by The World Food Prize Foundation received by the Graduate School of CAAS each year for short-term study and research. A total of 15 students from America and other countries and areas have been received till now and good results have been achieved. The two sides decided to strengthen and expand personnel communication and make concrete efforts to improve the communication capacity of young agricultural scientists globally.

The World Food Prize, created by the American Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman E. Borlaug in 1986, is the foremost internationally recognized honor in the field of agriculture. The Borlaug Field Award was created by the World Food Prize Foundation in 2011 for agricultural scientists under the age of 40 who have made outstanding contribution. Till now, there have been 3 Chinese scientists receiving these awards.

Also present at the meeting were Dr. Gong Xifeng, Director of Department of International Cooperation of CAAS, Dr. Liu Chunming, Director of Institute of Crop Sciences of CAAS and Dr. Luo Changfu, Deputy Director of the Graduate School of CAAS.