Workshop and launching meeting of ‘Innovation and Introduction of Oversea Talents Base’ on improving water use efficiency in agriculture was held from June 1 to June 2 at the conference hall of Jinma Hotel. Prof. Fujun Wang, dean of the College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering of CAU, presided over the opening ceremony, and Prof. Zhaohu Li, vice-president of CAU, gave welcoming remarks at the ceremony. Prof. Li stressed the importance of improving water use efficiency, especially in agriculture, to ensure our country’s food supply and sustainable development.

　　As the person in charge of the project funded by the ‘111 Plan’, Prof. and Academician Kang Shaozhong first introduced the background, research interests and specific research topics related the project, as well as the achievements on improving water use efficiency made in recent years by the Center for Agricultural Water Research in China, host of the ‘111 Plan’ project.  In his talk, Prof. Kang also specified the research interests and goals the Center want to pursue in the next decade, and pointed out the three major research regions, i.e. the Shiyang River Basin of Gansu, Hetao Irrigation District of Inner Mongolia, and North China Plain, and associated scientific issues that the Center will focus its research efforts on. Oversea experts including Prof. Edward Barlow from the University of Melbourne of Australia (Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences), Research Scientist Lu Zhang from CSIRO of Australia, Prof. William Davies from Lancaster University of UK, Prof. Robert Horton from Iowa State University of USA, Freddie Lamm from Kansas State University of USA, Prof. Henry Lin from Pennsylvania State University of USA, Prof. Robert Sharp of the University of Missouri of USA, Research Engineer Ruixiu Sui from USDA-ARS, Prof. Laosheng Wu from UC-Riverside of USA, Prof. Hongbing Zhan from Texas A&M University of USA, Prof. Jie Zhuang from the University of Tennessee of USA, assistant professor Kelly Caylor from Princeton University of USA, Prof. Jianhua Zhang from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Researcher Gilles Vercambre from INRA of France, and Researcher Alon Ben-Gal from ARO of Israel, as well as Prof. Guanhua Huang, Prof. Peiling Yang, Prof. Guangyong Li, Prof. Tingwu Lei, Prof. Taisheng Du and other professors from CAU presented the latest progress they have made and future work they want to explore in their research. The presentations largely focused on three major areas centered at improving water use efficiency in agriculture: integrated measures for improving water use efficiency in agriculture, irrigation equipment and precision control, and agro-hydrological processes. In concluding remarks, Prof. and dean Fujun Wang proposed future activities that could help deepen the collaboration with oversea scientists and ensure the success of the ‘111 Plan’ project, such as organizing workshops, jointly applying for research grants, jointly training graduate students, and etc.      

　　Meeting attendants took the opportunity discussing in great depth on topics and research fronts related to water use efficiency in agriculture during and after sessions. They also discussed in great details about how to proceed with close collaboration from the launching meeting to the next step to fulfill the tasks outlined in the ‘111 plan’ project, and they generally agreed upon that jointly applying for research grants, jointly carrying out research projects, jointly training graduate students, jointly publishing research articles, and establishing joint research center on improving water use efficiency in agriculture should be the priority in the near future.