The 8th Joint Working Group Meeting on Sino-US Cooperation in Agricultural Science and Technology was held by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Industries Demonstration Zone, Shaanxi Province on February 23, 2011. MOST Vice Minister ZHANG Laiwu, USDA Under-Secretary Catherine Woteki, and some 60 representatives attended the meeting.

Both sides reviewed the progress made since the 7th Joint Working Group Meeting in 2009. Over the past year, the two sides held nearly 20 academic meetings, had over 200 exchanges of visits by scientists, and trained 50 middle-aged and young researchers. Substantial progress has been made in related cooperative research projects. So far, nearly 30 cooperative research projects have been completed or are being implemented.