简报

From August 9 to 13, 2026, Wenjiao Shi, the core member of the RESIL FARM project and a research professor at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSNRR, CAS), held an academic exchange in Washington, DC, with Liangzhi You and Zhe Guo of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The discussion focused on the implementation progress of RESIL FARM, an international strategic science and technology cooperation project under China's National Key R&D Program; evaluation of improvements in the productivity and resilience of well-facilitated farmland; spatiotemporal analysis and optimization of complex agricultural systems; and IFPRI's research programs on agriculture, food systems, and climate resilience.

The workshop centered on the mechanisms through which well-facilitated farmland construction may jointly improve food-production capacity, carbon outcomes, and climate resilience. Discussion focused on rigorous identification of construction effects, integration of data and models across spatial scales, and extension of project findings into agricultural and food-system policy analysis. Drawing on China’s experience with well-facilitated farmland and IFPRI’s expertise in spatial data, foresight modeling, and food-policy research, the two sides examined how field monitoring, regional evaluation, and macro-level policy simulation could be connected within a coherent research framework.

Professor Shi presented the overall progress of RESIL FARM and the research tasks undertaken by IGSNRR, CAS. Using evidence from China's well-facilitated farmland program, remote sensing, and field surveys, the team is evaluating improvements in farmland productivity, identifying spatial differences in construction outcomes, and examining the factors that shape those outcomes. The work aims to identify regional pathways that can improve yield stability, carbon performance, and resistance to climate-related shocks. In maize-producing areas of Northeast China, the team used matching methods and difference-in-differences analysis to estimate the net effects of farmland construction and evaluated changes in yield growth, disaster resistance, and spatial homogeneity. Professor Shi also presented related work on intelligent spatiotemporal analysis, agricultural-process simulation, and spatial optimization of complex agricultural systems. Following a research sequence from mapping variable patterns, to simulating process change, and then optimizing spatial configurations, the team has developed methods for high-resolution mapping of agricultural resources, quantitative attribution of climate and irrigation effects, simulation under resource and environmental thresholds, and multi-objective optimization across food, water, nitrogen, and carbon. The team has also integrated economic, social, and ecological indicators to predict the spatial distribution of benefits from well-facilitated farmland and to identify how outcomes vary across landforms, resource conditions, and construction models. These results have supported farmland planning, agricultural remote-sensing monitoring, and regional optimization of agricultural production.

Liangzhi You and Zhe Guo presented IFPRI's major research programs, data resources, and policy-analysis tools related to agriculture and food systems. You introduced research on climate resilience, agroecosystems, spatial-data analysis, and agricultural science and technology policy, as well as the application of the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM) and the DREAM agricultural technology assessment model to global agricultural production patterns and technology investment. Guo discussed the role of geographic information systems, remote-sensing data integration, and spatial visualization in the analysis of agricultural production, climate risk, and food systems. They also explained IFPRI's approach to combining multi-scale spatial data, model-based analysis, and empirical surveys to examine connections among agricultural production, markets, nutrition, natural resources, and social inclusion, and shared several publicly available reports issued by the institute, including Food Policy Research for a Changing World: IFPRI Strategy 2026-2030. Organized around five themes - inclusive growth and transformation; resilient and sustainable food production; fair and efficient markets and trade; sustainable healthy diets and nutrition; and economic and social inclusion - the strategy proposes advancing the application and translation of food-policy research through foresight and outlook analysis, testing and scaling solutions, shaping enabling environments, and strengthening tools, methods, and capacity.

Drawing on the ongoing work of both sides, the workshop focused on how China's high-resolution plot-level research data can be linked with international agricultural spatial datasets such as SPAM and with crop and economic models to support cross-regional and cross-scale comparative research. The discussion also considered how assessments can move beyond production capacity and disaster resistance to include water and nitrogen use, carbon emissions, farm household income, and risk-protection indicators, thereby extending research on well-facilitated farmland to a comprehensive evaluation of resilient food systems.

The exchange identified a strong basis for linking China’s evaluation of well-facilitated farmland with IFPRI’s spatial datasets, foresight models, and food-system policy research. Future collaboration could compare the performance and climate-adaptation capacity of farmland infrastructure in representative regions, while strengthening the integration of high-resolution remote-sensing data, field surveys, and international agricultural spatial datasets. The two sides could also explore how engineering measures can be translated into scenario parameters for crop and economic models, allowing their effects on food-production capacity, resource use, carbon outcomes, and farm livelihoods to be assessed jointly. Joint papers, open-data products, and bilingual policy briefs could then translate the research into evidence for agricultural infrastructure investment and the development of climate-resilient food systems.