Beijing - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today visited the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing. During his visit, the Director-General met with Professor Wu Kongming, President of CAAS, to discuss how to further advance cooperation in the areas of among others science and innovation, capacity building, South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SST).

The Director-General appreciated the opportunity to visit CAAS, which is a world renowned agricultural research institute with a comprehensive strength in all domains of basic research, applied research, development research and capacity building for sustainable agriculture development.

The Director-General briefed the President on FAO’s flagship initiatives undertaken since he took office in August 2019. The Director-General highlighted that under the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 these initiatives will further support Members to implement the 2030 Agenda through the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Director-General mentioned that scientific institutions and academia are key pillars of FAO’s corporate partnership engagement, and that CAAS could play a more prominent role in providing packages of practical knowledge products and solutions for the benefit of the global south, especially the SIDS, LDCs and LLDCs, including through South-South and Triangular Cooperation programmes that are implemented in new and programmatic modalities and based on greater partnership.

The President reiterated CAAS’s commitment to continue and deepen cooperation with FAO in terms of all-round operationalization of the agricultural innovation through involvement in FAO’s flagship initiatives such as the 1000 Digital Villages Initiative, One Country One Priority Product Initiative and the Green Cities Initiative, and through South-South and Triangular Cooperation. The President also expressed CAAS’s interest to enhance cooperation with FAO in the areas of capacity building in developing countries, and through FAO’s Visiting Scholarship Programme.

Prior to the bilateral meeting, the Director-General also visited the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of CAAS and the National Crop Genebank of China to view the conservation and utilization of crop germplasm resources and revitalization of seed industry.