To promote international cooperation on agricultural sciences between China and Vietnam that is involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, OCRI-CAAS hosted a workshop on peanut genetic improvement during a VAAS (Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences) delegation’s visiting in Wuhan through May 16th to 18th, 2017. The delegation was led by Dr. Ta Hong Linh, Deputy Director of Sciences and International Cooperation Department of VAAS. Prof. Liao Boshou, Director General of OCRI-CAAS met the delegation and proposed further cooperative plans based on extensive discussions.

Dr. Nguyen Van Viet introduced the general situation of agricultural development in Vietnam and research progress on oil crops including peanut. Prof. Liao reviewed the cooperation on peanut improvement between OCRI-CAAS and VAAS. The two sides exchanged current situations about peanut industry, disease control approaches and molecular breeding technology. Further cooperative activities on peanut germplasm exchange, breeding for bacterial wilt resistance, control of aflatoxin contamination and training of Vietnamese students were discussed and agreed by both sides.

Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia, which is an important country along 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The climate and ecological environment in Vietnam is similar to southern China. China and Vietnam have the same demands for peanut research and development. Successful cooperation on peanut bacterial wilt disease control, breeding technology innovation and production technology transformation has been carried out during the past two decades. Several workshops and field demonstrations organized by OCRI-CAAS and the international Groundnut Bacterial Wilt Working Group (GBWWG) have been held in Vietnam, which laid a solid foundation for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative in the future.