A summary meeting for the "Precise Regulation of Crop Nutrients and Reduction Substitution Technologies in Major Grain-Production Areas" project was held in Beijing on Feb 24.

The thematic project was presided over by He Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and was one of state-level key R&D initiatives in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period.

The summary meeting brought together Zhou Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and researcher at the CAAS Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, Xu Minggang, CAE academician and researcher of Shanxi Agricultural University, Tian Youguo, researcher of the National Agro-tech Extension and Service Center (NATESC), Du Sen, researcher of the NATESC, Zou Guoyuan, researcher of Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Zhou Baoku, researcher of Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yang Yuechao, professor of Shandong Agricultural University, who jointly acted as members of an expert consultation committee. Those in attendance of the event also included project chief, principal researchers and other backbone personnel.

Yi Keke, deputy director-general of the CAAS Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, presided over the summary meeting. Wu Wenbin, head of the CAAS Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning, gave a welcome address on behalf of the project's supporting unit.

During the gathering, project head briefed attendees on the overall progress of the thematic project in the year-long span. Five principal researchers talked about the project in terms of its periodic development, problems and difficulties, corresponding measures, fund management and annual plans.

Meanwhile, members of the expert consultation committee offered their precise guidance in relation to the tasks and objectives of the thematic project and specific tasks, spoke highly of periodic achievements over the past year, and gave solutions as well as proposals to existing problems and potential challenges.

The expert consultation committee stressed that the research team should base their future studies on data and interim results made in the first year, focus on relevant objectives of precise nutrient regulation and reduction substitution, strengthen the integration between precise nutrient regulation and cultivation technologies, strive for an early maturity of technological models and standard formulation, and contribute personal efforts to the further increase of grain yield per hectare with the application and commercialization of research results.

In the internal exchange and discussion session, project chief, principal researchers and other backbone personnel gave analyses of each proposal from the expert consultation committee, came up with corresponding solutions, and made arrangements of the work in the year 2025. He pointed that the research team should pay close attentions to the objectives and assessment indicators, base itself on field experiments and technology refinement, and foster the "1+n+m" model, which consists of 1 core of the Nutrient Expert System, n common technologies for precise nutrient regulation and control, and m feature technologies for regional grain crops. It is mainly designed to promote the scientific research achievements to be effectively implemented and lay a foundation for the acceptance of the upcoming mid-term assessment.