A China-US research center for sustainable development of animal husbandry was inaugurated Sunday at the Gansu Agricultural University, based in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province in northwest China.

With the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the research center will serve as a platform for long-term cooperation between China and the United States in developing animal husbandry in the future, said a ministry official.

It will also play a role in coordinating bilateral scientific and technological cooperation in the field of animal husbandry, academic exchanges, import of relevant technologies and personnel training, while providing the governments with consultations on policy making.

US Under-Secretary of Agriculture Joseph Jen and Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong were present at Sunday's ceremony to mark the founding of the research center.

Li said the research center would vigorously promote bilateral cooperation and exchanges in improving pasture environment and developing animal husbandry technologies.

Both China and the United States boast vast pastures in their western regions, and animal husbandry plays a very important role in the national economic development of the two countries.

However, both countries now face such problems as deterioration of grassland, shortage of pasture resources, reduction in bio-diversity, invasion of weeds and declining productivity of grassland.

To solve these problems, the two sides have conducted research for more than two years.

Under the framework of the Sino-US agreement on scientific and technological cooperation, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Department of Agriculture of the United States signed a protocol on establishing the research center in December last year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2003)