World Congress on Root and Tuber Crops, the merger of the 3rd Scientific Conference of the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21^st Century (GCP21) & the 17^th Symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC), was held on Jan. 18-22, 2016 in Nanning, Guangxi. Academician Xu Zhihong was the congress Chairman. More than 700 attendees, including researchers, the private sector and donor agencies, participated in the congress. Professor Peng Zhang, together with 7 team members, joined the important event and presented 3 oral talks and one poster.

The congress is to facilitate the process of bringing together the scientific world and the private sector by the theme “Adding Value to Root and Tuber Crops” and covered crops such as cassava, sweet potato, potato, taro etc. Eighteen sessions were run during the congress, including Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, Genomics and Gene Discovery Platforms, Transgenic and in Vitro Technologies, Cassava & Sweet potato Breeding, Biotic & Abiotic Stress, Root & Tuber Crops Nutrition, etc. Over 200 researchers gave oral presentations on the congress. Professor Peng Zhang gave 3 oral talks showing the updated progress on cassava starch metabolism, storage root development, and sweet potato anthocyanin glycosylation, respectively. Dr. Jun Yang reported the recent results in sweet potato genome sequencing and evolution.

The congress provided an excellent platform for worldwide scientists, the private sector and donor agencies to discuss the opportunities and challenges that the scientists faced and promote the development of root and tuber crops globally.