Hybrid Potato Breeding and Cultivation Training Workshop & Global Hybrid Potato Alliance(GHPA) Seminar successfully held in Jinan, Shandong, China, on April 18-19, 2025. Zhai Lin, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS), and Wu Jiaqiang, Vice President of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences attended and addressed the opening ceremony. The event was chaired by Wang Ren, Senior Advisor of the Agricultural Genomics Institute of Shenzhen, CAAS(AGIS-CAAS).

During the Workshop & Seminar, Cheng Xu, the researcher from AGIS-CAAS, Professor Dong Shameng from Nanjing Agricultural University, Professor Christian Bachem from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and Senior Consultant Wang Ren delivered excellent reports on-site. Academician Huang Sanwen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and President of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences gave a special address online.

China places high importance on the development of the tuber crop industry, considering it a crucial pillar for implementing the national strategy of "storing grain in the land and technology." As the world's fourth-largest staple crop, potatoes offer unique advantages in alleviating food pressure and enhancing systemic resilience. In many countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, potatoes are not only a key food crop but also a backbone industry supporting farmers' livelihoods and rural economies.

In 2011, CAAS launched the "Upotato Plan" led by Huang Sanwen's. They developed the hybrid potato variety "Upotato 1". It addresses systemic challenges of traditional potatoes, such as "low propagation efficiency, long breeding cycles, and severe disease pressure," truly realizing the breakthrough of "replacing tubers with seeds and substituting cuttings with sowing." Academician Yuan Longping once praised this technology as a "disruptive innovation that will bring about a green revolution in the potato industry."

In 2022, CAAS partnered with the International Potato Center (CIP), the African Potato Association and other international organizations to establish the Global Hybrid Potato Alliance (GHPA). The alliance's mission focuses on promoting hybrid potato technology as a global public good. Priority deployment regions include food-insecure areas in Africa and Asia. Now, the "Upotato 1" variety has successfully completed trials across five Chinese provinces - Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan, and Guizhou with the positive feedback. It demonstrate that hybrid potato technology holds promise in delivering a "dual dividend" of seed industry transformation and yield increases for smallholder farmers.

In 2024, the First International Training Workshop on Hybrid Potato Breeding and Cultivation was successfully held in Beijing and Shenzhen, with in-depth participation from scholars from eight African countries and Vietnam. The event also featured a promotion activity on China-Africa agricultural technology innovation achievements, further enhancing collaborative agricultural development and laying a solid foundation for the Workshop &Seminar.

Participants included 10 expertsfrom nine different countries, including Bangladesh,Ethiopia,  Indonesia,Kenya, Laos,Malawi, Nigeria,Thailand and Vietnam. Attendees delivered country-specific reports on potato research and development, sharing their experiences and insights. The session was chaired by Dr. Philip Kear, Liaison Scientist of the CIP Asia-Pacific Center. Senior Consultant Wang Ren organized a thematic discussion on the introduction and field trials of "Upotato 1" in Asian and African developing countries. Following the conference summary, all the experts had an on-site visit to Tengzhou Potato Production Base.

The workshop & Seminar was hosted by AGIS-CAAS. It was held on the International Academic Conference on Green and Efficient Tuber Crops Production, organized by the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Under the theme "Collaboration and Innovation—Promoting Sustainable Development of the Tuber Industry," the event brought together global leading experts to focus on key topics such as tuber crop breeding, cultivation, pest control, efficient production, food processing, and green development, establishing a platform for sustainable development and fostering collaborative mechanisms in the industry. Scholars from Belt and Road countries actively participated, demonstrating a strong commitment to South-South agricultural cooperation and technology sharing.