2019-08-16
The 2019 China High-level Potato Industry Forum was held in Lanxian county, Lvliang city, Shanxi province on August 5 and 6, 2019.
Lanxian county is known as China's "Land of Potatoes".
Seven agricultural and potato experts from the United States,Britain, Peru, and Zimbabwe took part in the forum, together with 19 Chinese experts specialized in potato breeding, potato industry promotion and potato nutrition as well as over 240 participants from Sichuan, Gansu, Guizhou, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi.
Song Jun, executive secretary of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), and Li Zhengyin, vice chairman of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and secretary of the Lvliang City Committee of the Communist Party of China, attended the opening ceremony.
Wang Kangyou, president of CAST-affiliated Science and Technology Review journal, chaired the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony of the 2019 China High-level Potato Industry Forum which is held in Lanxian county, Lvliang city, Shanxi province on August 5 and 6, 2019
Song Jun applauded the forum as a forward-looking and innovative academic event that promotes government-industry-academia integration.
"The forum has gathered over 200 guests from both home and abroad to study and plan for the potato industry's prospects and future direction. They will exchange ideas on the development of a whole potato industry chain, the application of potato technology advances, the transformation and upgrading of the potato industry, and poverty alleviation through science and technology," said Song.
Song hoped that participants would study Lanxian county and Lvliang city as a typical case for potato growing, and share each other’s successful experiences, explore ways for increasing potato yield and income to relieve poverty.He expected that the participants would seek cooperation opportunities and propose solutions for global poverty elimination and sustainable development in this forum.
The forum's reports session was chaired by Lu Xiaoping, head of the International Potato Center (CIP) - China Centre for Asia and Pacific (International Potato Center) and vice-chairman of the Potato Committee of the Crop Science Society of China (PC-CSSC).
The reports session featured five informative reports that shared, through case studies and data analysis, experiences, knowledge, and insights on various steps starting from potato breeding all the way through to the development of a whole industry chain.
Wang Jian, vice-chairman of PC-CSSC and vice president of the Qinghai Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, presented a report on potato breeding on plateau areas; Jan Low, principal scientist at CIP and World Food Prize recipient, talked about sweet potato growing for poverty alleviation in the African regions south of Sahara as well as the inspirations from the practice; Ross Welch, courtesy professor of Cornell University, U.S., discussed crop nutrition and global practices for its improvement; Guo Huachun, professor of College of Agronomy and Biotechnology, Yunnan Agricultural University and vice-chairman of PC-CSSC, shared his insights on how to tap into potato diversity while developing the potato industry; Wang Dengshe, director of the Potato Council of the China National Seed Association and president of Snow Valley Agriculture, offered his views on potato industry integration in China.
Themed “Innovation · Integration · Quality · Efficiency,” the forum focused on studying and planning for the potato industry’s prospects and future direction. It was expected to discuss the operation of a whole potato industry chain and explore better solutions to match supply with demand. The forum also aimed to help improve the potato industry's growth quality and efficiency in poverty-stricken areas, and facilitate brands incubation of different places, to consolidate poverty alleviation achievements and contribute to rural revitalization.