June 15th, a delegation of five people from Utah State University, at the invitation of Modern Arid Water-saving Agriculture Innovation and Talent Recruitment Base, visited the Northern Shaanxi Red Date Experiment Base of the National Engineering Research Center for Water Saving Irrigation at Yangling .
Accompanied by Prof. Wu Pute, director of the Water-saving Center, the delegation paid a visit to the Qingjian Red Date Experiment Demonstration Station and Mizhi Mountain Area Red Date Water-saving Experiment Demonstration Station. In Qingjian County, the delegation had on-site visits to experiment bases set up under the guidance of ISWC experts, including Dingjiagou Red Date High-density Cultivation Demonstration Base, Liujiahe Red Date High-density Cultivation & Water-saving Demonstration Base, Niujiawan Red Date High-density Cultivation & Water-saving Demonstration Base, Dianzegou Mountain Area Red Date Base and the central demonstration garden of the Red Date Experiment Station. Thet also visited a red date processing firm in Qingjian County (the Shaanxi New Heng’an Group). The delegation also took a trip to the Zizhou County Red Date Base, visiting three-year red date forest and the red date micro-irrigation & cold storage project. U.S. experts took great interest in red date industry. Prof. Mac Mckee inquired in detail about the processing technology, marketing and economic gains of the red date products. He gladly wrote the inscription in Chinese, "Date Wins the World." In Mizhi County, the delegation visited the mature forest and the micro-irrigation at the Mengcha Red Date Base. They learned in detail about progress of the experiments at the base and had discussions with experts and graduate students conducting researches there.
During USU’s visit, the project team and the American guests held a seminar, at which Prof. Roger Kjelgren made a presentation entitled "Joint Center for Climate Change, Agriculture and Water", and made his proposal for initial cooperation thereby.