On June 6-10, 2023, Professor Zhang Jiyu from the College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology visited the CREA Research Center at the invitation of Professor Paolo Annicchiarico from the Animal Production and Aquatic Center of Council for Agricultural Research and Economics Italy (CREA).

During the visit, he delivered an academic report of “Genetic improvement for drought tolerance and high yield of Medicago sativa”; discussed with several CREA scientists, and particularly discussed about Medicago sativa breeding project under collaborative research with Dr. Paolo and Dr. Nelson; visited the field breeding base in Lodi, including the whole genome selection nursery of Medicago sativa, half-sib family drought tolerance assessment nursery of Medicago sativa, soybean germplasm resources nursery, etc.

On June 11-15, Zhang Jiyu attended the 11^th International Herbage Seed Group Conference (IHSG) in Angers France. The conference was sponsored by the National Federation of Seed Multiplier Farmers (FNAMS) and chaired by IHSG Chairman and Denmark Aarhus University Professor Rene Gislum. 160+ representatives from 16 countries such as New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Denmark and China attended the conference. At the opening ceremony, Professor Gislum and IHSG Former Chairman Professor Phil Rolston paid tribute via PPT to the contribution of China’s distinguished grass plant breeding and seed scientist Professor Wang Yanrong from the College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology Lanzhou University on IHSG and international herbage seed research respectively.

Zhang Jiyu delivered a report of “Herbage seed production in arid areas of Northwest China” at the conference, arousing extensive discussions. During the conference, visits were made to the FNAMS seed cleaning, inspection and certification laboratory, FNAMS Medicago sativa, red clover seed production field, mixed sowing intercropping technology of seed production, DLF France lawn grass breeding base and Medicago sativa seed production base under peasant household level, etc. The 12^th International Herbage Seed Group Conference will be sponsored by the Australian Tasmanian Seed Group in 2025.