In order to implement “Sanya Declaration of the First Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Leaders Meeting”, Chinese government established Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special fund (LMCSF) to support the cooperation among six countries including Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Lao, and China since 2017. The LMSCF project “Establishment of the Cooperative Platform for the Green Control and Prevention of Major Crop Diseases and Pests in Lancang-Mekong River Basin” led by Prof. QIU Dewen, the DDG of IPP-CAAS was funded in November 2017. This funding was provided as “pump-priming” to help in establishing the network among the Lancang-Mekong basin.
One of the goals of this year's LMCSF project is to training workshops in the five Lancang-Mekong countries. From Aug 13 to Sep 17, training courses on “Advanced Methods and Technologies in Green Control of Plant Pests” were successfully held in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR. Five delegations consisting of IPP-CAAS experts focused on different research areas led by DG Prof. ZHOU Xueping, DDG Prof. QIU Dewen, and DDG Prof. ZHENG Yongquan visited the five countries, respectively. The local coordinating institu-tions as following the Asia Medical and Agricultural Laboratory and Research Center in Thailand, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation in Myanmar, the Plant Protection Research Institute, Vietnamese Academy of Agricultural Sci-ences in Vietnam, the Department of Agro-Industry, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Cambodia, and the Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Lao PDR, helped to organize the training events in each country. All countries extended warm welcome to the delegations and gave full recognition to the implementation of the LMCSF project. The delegations met high officials from local research institutes and universities. The head of each delegation gave them brief introductions to IPP-CAAS and LMCSF project. During the training courses, the experts from IPP-CAAS, and invited local famous experts gave lectures focusing on various aspects in green control of plant pests, including plant virus detection, application of plant immunity inducer to prevent crop diseases, integrated pest management of pests on wheat, rice, corn, vegetable and new technologies in pesticides application and risk management, etc. Altogether, over 1000 participants joined the training courses and received certificates afterwards. Moreover, the delegations also went on field trips to inspect pest management in local farms. Overall, the visit of the IPP-CAAS delegations to the five Lancang-Mekong countries not only fulfilled the purpose of the project, but also brought advanced knowledge in green control of plant pests to the scientific researchers, tech-nicians, college students and farmers, which will strongly promote the economic and social development of these countries in the long run.