Mr. Alessandro Amadio, the official from United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganization inspected the achievement obtained from the UN program on phasing out methyl bromide in agricultural industry in China on 26 January, 2016. The Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, implemented this program as a technical supporting institution. Mr. WANG Quanhui, the Director of International Cooperation Division, the Rural Energy & Environment Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture, and Ms. LI Xiongya, the program official from the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, took part in the inspection. Dr. CAO Aocheng from IPP accompanied them on the visit.

Mr. Amadio inspected the R&D of machineries used for soil fumigation and the demonstration fields for alternatives to methyl bromide. Because the latestart of soil fumigationtechnology in China, the facilities used in soil fumigation are lagged behind many other countries. Recently, Chinese companies cooperated with foreign companies and developed novel soil fumigation equipment for chloropicrin, which realized the integrated mechanical operation for ridging and chemical application. The equipment fulfilled the requirement of soil fumigation for fields with different sizes, which filled the void in soil fumigation equipment, esp. for large equipment. Mr. Amadio highly praised the pace and the effect in R&D of soil fumigation machinery in China. He affirmed the effort that China paid on the screening of alternatives to methyl bromide and spoke highly of the significant efficiency in the screening of alternatives.

Mr. Amadio expressed that China positively promoted the work of phasing out methyl bromide and realized the aims of implementation of the CopenhagenAmendment. The acreage of cash crops and the protected land were very largein China, Mr. Amadio said. There are wide promising applications for soil fumigation in China. The next step for China to do is to extend these successful technologies to other regions as early as possible.