From March 24 to 28, during the period when Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to France, a delegation led by TANG Huajun, member of the Chinese Communist Party Group of MARA, President of CAAS visited the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). DG ZHOU Xueping of IPP-CAAS accompanied the visit.

At the headquarter of INRA, President TANG Jiliang and Mr. Philippe Mauguin, President of INRA had in-depth communication. The two parties fully affirmed the positive progress that have been made in major cooperation areas such as plant protection, wheat genomics, agricultural ecology and climate changes, and decided to continue making efforts to expand the cooperation field, increase cooperation channels, and enhance cooperation levels. It is hoped to carry out deep cooperation in more research areas including intelligent agriculture, prevention and control of cross-border plant and animal diseases, biodiversity,

During the visit, TANG Huajun and Philippe Mauguin, representing the two sides, signed the MoU of “CAAS-INRA International Joint Laboratory on Plant Protection”. The delegation also visited the Versailles campus of INRA.

IPP-CAAS has highly valued the cooperation with France in agricultural science and technology. In September 2018, DG ZHOU Xueping and President Philippe MAUGUIN signed the Letter of Intent on preparing the “International Associated Laboratories (LIA)”. In February 2019, the plaque unveiling ceremony for “CAAS-INRA International Joint Laboratory on Plant Protection” was carried out as one of the important achievements at the 14th Symposium of the Joint Committee for China-France Science and Technology Cooperation. The two parties had extensive discussions on how to solve problems faced by both China and France, including invasion mechanism and control technology of invasive species, occurrence mechanism of disaster and control technology of agricultural diseases and pests, functional mechanism and new technologies of agricultural beneficial species, occurrence, prediction and control technology in agricultural diseases and pests under climate changes. They are committed to complement each other’s strengths and solve the common problems in agricultural production .