An award ceremony was held at the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Regional Planning (IARRP) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing on April 11 to celebrate the opening of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Sub-center for Agricultural Nuclear Emergency Preparedness & Response Collaboration.

The ceremony marks that the IARRP and the IAEA will further strengthen their capacity building and international collaboration over the research and development of agricultural nuclear emergency technology and intelligent response field under the framework of the CAAS-IAEA Plant Nuclear Radiation Breeding Collaboration Center in a span of five years.

Director-General of the IARRP Wu Wenbin accepted the award certificate on behalf of the research institute at the ceremony. Those in attendance of the event also included President of the CAAS Wu Kongming, Director-General of the IAEA Rafael Mariano Grossi, and staff workers from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense's International Cooperation Center as well as other relevant agencies.

Since 2019, the IARRP has acted as a team leader of the Agricultural Nuclear Emergency Preparedness & Response Collaboration Sub-center, remained committed to research and development of smart agriculture's climate and land management technologies, and conducted studies of the influences exerted by land utilization reduction, land degradation, soil erosion, water resource insufficiency and nuclear emergency conditions upon crop production and ecological environment.

Meanwhile, the IARRP has proactively taken part in the IAEA's collaborative research programs, undertaken the research of dynamic remote sensing monitoring of agricultural land and crop type identification in collaboration with the IAEA, incorporated crop spatio-temporal distribution data into the decision-making supportive system for nuclear accident-related agricultural risks, provided decision makers with assistance in the research of nuclear pollution supervision and assessment strategies, formulated restoration plans, and extended scientific guidance to agricultural production.

Moreover, the IARRP has conducted comprehensive surveys and analyses of soil erosion via remote sensing and nuclear energy technology on the farmland of northeast China, and utilized cesium-137 to determine the intensity and erosion source areas in the black soil areas, tackle erosion and degradation risks and map out risk management strategies, laying a solid scientific foundation for further enhancing the load-bearing capacity of water and soil resources and promoting the sustainable development of the agricultural sector.

Relevant research results have been published in  Chinese Academy of Sciences Q1journals such as the "Soil & Tillage Research" .

In the years ahead, the two sides will further expand their research cooperation fields, underscore the application of smart agriculture and big data technology in the decision making for agricultural emergency, intensify their joint research on nuclear risk prevention and control against climate change backdrop, improve bilateral exchange mechanisms, enlarge South-South cooperation and tripartite cooperation, promote global nuclear sci-tech innovation, cultivate professional think tanks, establish innovative research and practice models in the field of agricultural nuclear technology, and make positive contributions to the development of global agricultural science and food security.