The 5th Meeting of Agriculture Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States was held via video conference on Oct. 21. Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Zhang Taolin attended the meeting from the Yangling Demonstration Zone in Xianyang, Shaanxi province.

Zhang briefed the meeting on the idea of establishing an SCO Agricultural Technology Exchange and Training Demonstration Base in Yangling, as first proposed by President Xi Jinping at the SCO Heads of Government Council in June 2019. The proposal received unanimous support and a positive response from all the meeting participants, and was formally included in the minutes of the meeting. Zhang expressed appreciation for the great support from all the participants and pledged that China would build the Demonstration Base into a platform for facilitating technological cooperation and exchange in the field of agriculture with other SCO member states, thus providing support for the modernization of agriculture in the region.

Zhang also exchanged views with his counterparts on promoting agricultural and rural development amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He called on SCO member states to conduct exchanges on food security issues, strengthen cooperation in technological innovations in agriculture, and continue to expand two-way agricultural investment and trade.

The meeting considered and adopted several important documents, including the Action Plan 2021-2025 to implement the Agreement Between the Governments of the SCO Member States on Cooperation in the Field of Agriculture, and the Implementation Plan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Food Security Cooperation Program.