The symposium on cassava traditional food development and 1st cassava cultural festival from Hakka people was successfully held in Dabu county, Meizhou city, Guangdong province, from September 27 to 29, 2019. The Principal Investigator, Prof. Kaimian Li from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS) delivered the welcome speech and added special thanks to the teams who hosted the event. The other leaders from Dabu county have also delivered their speeches. The meeting was divided into different sections such as special invitation reports, visit to Dabu snack city, observation of traditional cassava planting regions, demonstration of the model village for rural revitalization, and finally, attendees also learned Hakka culture by visiting several villages. More than 100 people attended this meeting.

Prof. Zhang Peng and Dr. Ma Qiu xiang from SCCB participated in the event. Through the special invitation reports, we fully understood the developmental history of cassava, Hakka cassava culture, the problems and countermeasures of cassava food processing, and the current status and prospects of cassava traditional food development. A brief visit to Dabu snack city deepens our understanding of cassava-related snacks/dishes, their production technology and furthermore, the incubation base provides us hope for the development of cassava industry in the region. Most importantly, through the exploration of traditional cassava planted in Yincun of Yinjiang town, an inspection of the model village for rural revitalization and the Hakka cassava culture, we deeply understood the importance of cassava in the hearts of the Hakka people which strengthen our confidence in helping the development of the cassava culture and industry.