China-Australia Network for Grassland Farming Systems
Inaugural bilateral meeting Xinjiang, August 15-19, 2011
Second Announcement

Australia and China share similar geographical features, each with 400m ha of grazing lands of low to moderate productivity, subject to short growing seasons and facing similar problems in utilising grasslands sustainably and sustaining the livelihoods of those who live on them. Cooperation in grassland resource management, rehabilitation of degraded landscapes, ecosystem restoration, forages and improving farmer incomes, between these two large countries has increased in recent years. There are now several major grassland projects in China, some with Australian involvement. An aim of the meeting is to have presentations on those in progress.
This inaugural bilateral meeting will be a forum for people to share their research results, discuss problems, new developments and future cooperation. Of particular interest will be how incomes, grassland resource and associated livestock production problems are being solved in each country. Are new principles emerging that would have wider applications? Grasslands include all those wider related issues, important in sustaining this major resource.
There have been some 50 papers submitted to this meeting by Chinese and Australian Grassland Scientists covering the areas of:

• Grassland condition
• Plant evaluation
• Grassland and forage agronomy
• Grassland soils
• Forage quality and animal nutrition
• Grassland and grazing management
• Herder livelihoods

This meeting is the first in what is planned to be an on-going series where Chinese and Australian grassland scientists will exchange views on the work being done to achieve sustainable grasslands. The second meeting will probably be at the International Grassland Congress in Australia in 2013.

You are invited to attend this meeting

If you would still like to present a paper and/or participate then please contact us. Please pass this message on to other people whom you think would be interested in this meeting.
All authors are to submit a one page abstract of their papers for publication in the proceedings of this meeting. The one page abstract needs to be submitted by July 31st 2011.
A selection of papers from this meeting will be submitted to the Rangeland Journal for review and possible publication. The selected papers need to conform to the themes and style of that Journal. Those papers will be subject to the normal review processes of the Rangeland Journal. The Journal papers need to be submitted by September 30th 2011 so that a special issue can be published in 2012. There is no guarantee that all papers submitted to the journal will be published as that will be decided in relation to the aims and objectives of the Rangeland Journal. The Editors of the Rangeland Journal are keen to publish up to 15 papers from this meeting in a special issue.

Place:

Urumqi Xinjiang, China. Xinjiang has extensive grasslands that encompass many of the issues that will be discussed at the meeting. A field trip will be held as part of the program.

Dates:

Monday, 15th to Friday 19th August 2011.

Hosts:

China Agricultural University
Charles Sturt University, E H Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation
Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang Academy of Animal Science
China – Australia Network for Grassland Farming Systems

Working language:

The working language for the conference is English.

Preliminary program

Registration

Registration fee: RMB 1800, or USD 300, will cover the field trip, tea break, banquet, proceedings and other materials.
Accommodation: Dushanzi Hotel (Four star), Urumqi, Xinjiang. Accommodation fee: 460 RMB/Room (two beds)/day.
Transport: the Meeting will provide transport between the hotel and Airport of Urumqi.
For information please contact:
Beijing, Professor Zhang Yingjun, China Agricultural University, zhangyj@cau.edu.cn; Tel and Fax: +86-10-62733380; Cell phone: 13611272283
Xinjiang, Professor Zhu Jinzhong, Xinjiang Agricultural University, xjauzjz@126.com; Tel: +86-991-8762612; Fax: +86-991-8763041; Cell phone: 13095032270

附件：

参会回执

注：1、住宿为标准间，收费为460元/间·天，请提供房间数即可；
2、抵达和离开方式、时间填写具体的航班、车次，以方便接送。