Consortium of US Universities & Institutions in Cooperation with China for Agriculture

Collaboration in Sustainable Agriculture & Development in China and USA

Recently, International Programs has been involved with the Cornell-China Initiative. Two major workshops have been conducted involving Cornell and Chinese scientists. The first, on "Agro-Scientific Research Cooperation between China and the United States," was held in Shanghai during the period of October 12 - 14, 1997. The main purpose of this workshop was to begin developing a framework for long-term collaborations that support sustainable food systems for China's agricultural and economic development.

The second workshop, "Collaboration in Sustainable Agriculture and Development in China and the U.S. was held in Ithaca, New York in 1998. This workshop had three primary objectives: 1) To identify key problems and opportunities for achieving sustainable agriculture and development in the 21st century in the two countries, assessing where there can be joint research and problem-solving and learning from each other's experiences and discoveries; 2) To formulate a plan for collaborative research and investigation in areas that can involve other institutions and partners; and 3) To plan collaborative work in a Jiangsu pilot program to integrate initiatives for the goal of sustainable agriculture and development.

Most of the work at the 1998 workshop was done in six small working groups. The six areas included Economic and Institutional Analysis; Animal Science and Research including Biotechnology and Nutrient Management Innovations; Plant Science and Research including Biotechnology'; Integrated Crop Management for Sustainable Development; Land and Water Management and Conservation; and Postharvest Technologies for Storage, Processing and Preservation, including Food Safety Issues.

Efforts are now underway to develop a comprehensive proposal for the purpose of obtaining needed funding to carry out the proposed initiatives.

China-Cornell Fellowship Program

The China-Cornell Fellowship Program, funded initially by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and subsequently by the Lingnan Foundation, supports the advancement of modern science in Chinese higher education and research by enabling young Chinese scientists living abroad to return to their country as part-time adjunct professors at selected institutions in China. This very successful program has expanded to become known as China Bridges International (CBI) and is now administered Dr. Xiangzhong Yang at the University of Connecticut .

CBI is committed to promoting international exchanges and collaboration between China and the rest of the world by strengthening existing and developing new fellowship programs. CBI consists of a spectrum of fellowship programs to support the best qualified and most highly committed scientists, educators, and engineers in the United States and other western countries to develop collaborative projects of scientific research, teaching, and technology transfer with fellow scientists in China. To date, CBI has awarded more than 60 multi-year fellowships involving more than 100 collaborative visitations by participating fellows.