Prof. Peng Zhang attended the Executive Committee Panel meeting and the Kick-off meeting for 2015 tasks of the Chinese Cassava Agricultural Research System (CCARS) in Guiyang, Guizhou, on March 15-17, 2012. More than 30 members, including scientists of different research laboratories and agents of different research stations, were participated in the event.

On March 15, members of the Executive Committee Panel evaluated the progress of the CCARS tasks for the 12^th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) in order to urge all members to complete their assignments in 2015. They also discussed the direction and content for CCARS during the 13^th Five-Year plan (2016-2020). On March 16, the scientists and agents reported their annual plans and then intensively discussed the issues that had been proposed by the Executive Committee Panel meeting in groups. Their comments and suggestions for task settings were recruited.

Invited by Director Zuoyi Liu and Vice Director Guixiu Huang, CCARS PI Kaimian Li, accompanied by Peng Zhang, Wenquan Wang, Bi Gu, Qing Chen, visited Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences and gave lectures for academic exchanges. Prof. Peng Zhang presented a talk with title “Current progress and perspectives of cassava molecular breeding” and exchanged with researchers on various topics.