From August 14 to 21, Prof. Zhang Peng and team members started a scientific investigation from Guangxi, the major province of cassava cultivation, to Xiangxi Jishou, the new frontier of cassava northward plantation.

The delegates first visited Guangxi Cassava Institute and were warmly welcomed by the Executive Directors Tian Yinong and Li Jun. Both had in-depth exchanges on cassava research progress and talent cultivation in the past ten years, and signed a project cooperation agreement. They also visited the cassava germplasm repository and home-made cassava storage freezers for cassava food processing.

The following visit was at Guangxi University where the delegates joined a workshop organized by Prof. Li Youzhi, the Executive Director of the college of life science and technology. Prof. Li presented the major progress of cassava research in his team and extensively discussed with the guests on bilateral collaboration and academic exchanges. Prof. Gu Minghua and his team from Agricultural College also joined the workshop and discussed the progress of a joined cassava project.

In the third day, the delegate paid a visit to Wuming research station of CCARS. The station director Li Zhaogui and his team guided the visitors around the cassava experimental field, and introduced the performance of different cassava cultivars in details. Later, they also brought the delegates to a nearby farmer family to show how cassava improved their livelihood in a decade.

After the Guangxi journey, the team flied to Xiangxi Jishou, Hunan province for attending Symposium of Cassava Genetic Improvement in Northward Cultivation. The symposium was jointly organized by Laboratory of Genetic Improvement and Changsha Station of CCARS and more than one hundreds participates from CCARS, academies and enterprises attend the event. The meeting covered special reports, academic reports, annual mid-term assessment of National Key Research and Development Program of China, special discussion on technological innovation of cassava northward cultivation and targeted poverty alleviation in Shibadong village, Huayuan county and field visit of cassava plantation.

Dr. Ma Qiuxiang, Dr. Zhou Wenzhi and Mrs. Lu Xinlu from SCCB joined the delegation. Qiuxiang and Whenzhi gave their reports with the titles of "The Response of Cassava to Cold Stress" and "The Evaluation of Cassava Starch and its Nutritional Quality", respectively. The visit not only carried out the project cooperation among research laboratories and stations, but also strengthened the exchange and cultivation of talents. More importantly, the delegates learned that cassava industrialization can be a useful approach of poverty alleviation, which requests more scientific research and technology innovation addressing the key problem during cassava northward cultivation.