Ties that Bind: China and ICARDA. A productive partnership spanning three decades

Abstract

ICARDA’s collaboration with China has grown steadily since the early 1980s and now incorporates a wide range of activities – from capacity development to crop improvement and the exchange of germplasm. Focused on strategic crops, including wheat, barley and food legumes, the Center’s research is helping Chinese partners to maintain food production against a backdrop of shifting climate patterns and increasing desertification. The fruits of this research partnership can be seen in innovations in a number of areas where Chinese research centers and ICARDA have worked over the past three decades. For example, the faba bean variety Yandou 147, developed by Chinese crop breeders from ICARDA material, covers almost 30% of the faba bean area in Yunnan province – one of the world’s largest faba bean production zones. And 75% of the barley area in Yunnan is sown to varieties originating from ICARDA material. They include Yundamai No. 2, which yielded 10.8 tons per hectare during the 2010 season – the highest ever recorded in China.