The Second Scientific Conference of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century (GCP21-II) was successfully held in Kampala, Uganda, June 18-22, 2012 at the Speke Resort and Conference Center. More than 400 participates, including scientists, entrepreneurs and sponsors around the world, attended the great event. The theme of this conference is "Cassava: Overcoming Challenges of Global Climatic Change". Intensive communications and information exchanges were achieved among the participants. Topics including biodiversity and genetic resources, impact of climate changes, the functional gene discovery platform, viral and bacterial diseases, abiotic and biotic resistance, biofortification and metabolic engineering, molecular breeding and field breeding, seeds systems and cassava value chain were discussed comprehensively. Porf. Peng Zhang and Dr. Jun Yang attended the meeting and gave three oral presentations in three different sessions. The presentation of "Production of novel modified starches using the having high amylose or amylopectin" by Dr. Jun Yang won the Best Presentation Award. The meeting not only updates the progresses of cassava R&D made in the last several years but also promotes the advances of cassava research using the state-of-the-art technology and intensifies multiple collaborations, thus providing the global platform for fastening breeding, new cultivar delivery and industrialization in cassava.