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International Forum on Food-Land-Energy-Water Systems in Asia

The 2019 Asian FLEW International Forum was successfully held in Nanjing, China on 23-25 May 2019.

On May 23, 2019, the International Forum on Food-Land-Energy-Water Systems in Asia 2019, sponsored by Asian Agricultural Research Center (Asia Hub) of Nanjing Agricultural University and co-organized by Michigan State University and Monsoon Asia Integrated Research for Sustainability – Future Earth (MAIRS-FE) in collaboration with Future Earth NEXUS KAN and Global Land Project, was officially opened at Jiangsu Conference Center. More than 100 scientific researchers coming from 34 universities and research institutes in 16 countries gathered together.

CHEN Fadi, President of Nanjing Agricultural University, Steven Hanson, Vice Provost of Michigan State University, Ha Thanh Toan, President of Can Tho University, Vietnam, XIE Ping, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and former President of Sichuan University, FU Congbin, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, LI Xiaojuan, Vice President of Capital Normal University, HU Feng, Vice President of Nanjing Agricultural University, and CHEN Jie, Director of International Department of Nanjing Agricultural University attended the opening ceremony and delivered keynote speeches.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Professor QI Jiaguo, the initiator of the conference. At the meeting, Vice President HU Feng, on behalf of Nanjing Agricultural University, launched the “Initiative for the Establishment of an Asian Agricultural Innovation Alliance” and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), together with Steven Hanson, Vice Dean of the University of Michigan on “1+1+N” cooperation with 13 (+4) Asian universities and scientific research institutions.

The forum lasted for three days and yielded fruitful results. Through discussion, the participants further clarified and understood FLEW (food-land-energy-water) concept and applied it to the study of Asian water towers (i.e. water in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China and the main 11 river systems around it). The progress of 16 seed fund projects supported by Asia Hub in the past two years were reported and reviewed. Aisa Hub summarized the key findings and put forward four main research directions in the future. The directions contain WEF Nexus and environment, WEF Nexus and technology, WEF Nexus and social economy, and WEF Nexus and food security.

Following the meeting, Professor Ha Thanh Toan, President of Vietnam’s Can Tho University, announced that the next Asian FLEW International Forum would be hosted by Can Tho University in China in December 2020.

Editor: Yingmu Chang, MAIRS-FE IPO

Read the news of 2019 Asian FLEW International ForumĀ in ChineseĀ here.