Dr. Hai-Chun Jing Group Leader, Genetics and Genomics of Biomass Crops,Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science (China)

Dr. Jing received his BS in 1986, MSc in 1989 from Lanzhou University, China, his PhD in 2005 from University of Groningen in The Netherlands. His PhD research was on a genetic characterisation of leaf senescence in Arabidopsis. During 1989-1995, Jing worked as a junior and senior scientist in the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Resources in Tianjin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and then as a research associate during 1996-1999 in Plant Research International, Wageningen University and Research Centre, under the support of Nuffic and Wotro fellowships. He worked as a senior researcher at Rothamsted Research until he returned to China.

Jing joined the Institute of Botany in 2008 through the Hundred Talent Programme of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is currently a professor in the Key Lab of Plant Resources. He manages a research programme which emphasises the genetic improvement of sorghum (Sorghum bicolour) and maize (Zea mays). His own expertise is in the areas of genetics, molecular biology and genomics, but he collaborates with scientists in plant breeding, bioinformatics and computer science.

Grass-based Livestock Husbandry for sustainbale grassland management and food security in China

With the drastic dietary shift from plant-based products towards animal-based products over the past decades, China is restructuring the agricultural production system and Grass-based Livestock Husbandry (GLiH) is proposed as a new paradigm to boost the milk and read meat production, while preventing grassland degredation as a result of overgrazing and intensive human exploitation activites. However, with the long history of an agriculture emphasising the production of cereal grains, China is in need to set up a model for sustainable management of GLiH. The Experimental zone aims to set up such a model by coordinating the farming activities of the 1 million ha grassland and 100,000 ha arable land of Hulun Buir State Farm to coordinate the grass production, forage processing and livestock farming in a sustainable manner. I will introduce the research and demonstration work carried out by CAS GliH teams during the conference.