The 17^th World Fertilizer Congress (WFC) themed as ‘Go East! Fertilizers!’ was launched successfully in Shenyang on September 3^rd-7^th, 2018. The WFC was organized jointly by International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The host organizers include Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute for Crop and Soil Science, Julius Kuhn-Institute, Germany and Shenyang Association for Science and Technology. This is the second time for China to host this highly regarded event since 2001.

More than 800 attendees from more than 20 countries including China, United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Turkey and other countries participated in this year’s WFC. Ewald Schnug (CIEC President), ZHU Zhaoliang (Academician of CAS), CHEN Wenfu (Academician of CAS), Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, ZHANG Fusuo, Director from Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS, GAO Jinghua, Vice-President of CIEC Asia Renfang Shen, BAI Youlu (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences), JI Lanzhu (Secretary of the Shenyang branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and President of the Asian branch of the International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers), ZHANG Chunying (Secretary and Vice president of Liaoning Association for Science and Technology), WANG Yidong (Vice-minister of Organization Department of Shenyang Municipal Party committee), WU Zhifeng (Shenyang Association for Science and Technology), ZHU Jiaojun (Director of IAE), FANG Yunting (Vice-director of IAE), WU Zhijie (Professor of IAE), SHI Yuanliang (Secretary of the Asian branch of the International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers).

The opening ceremony of the conference began on the morning of September 4^th and was hosted by Silvia Haneklaus, Secretary General of the International Fertilizer Science Center. Ewald Schnug, ZHU Jiaojun, SHEN Renfang, ZHANG Chunying, WANG Yidong (consigned by LIU Guixiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and organization minister), JI Lanzhu, GAO Jinghua (President of the Congress, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, ZHANG Yaping) delivered speeches. The guests said that the convening of the conference will greatly promote the cooperation and exchange between Chinese fertilizer scholars and scientists from all over the world, and make important contributions to improving the utilization of fertilizer resources and realizing the sustainable development of the world's agriculture.

At the conference, more than 30 experts and scholars from home and abroad made a special report on the latest developments and development trends in various fields of fertilizer research and application. This conference includes 9 sessions: “Coated Fertilizer and Compound Fertilizer,” “Stabilized Fertilizer and Fertilizer Transformation”, "Biochar Based and Amino Acid Fertilizers", "Fertilization and Environment", "Soil Nutrient Management and Fertilization", "Bio-organic Fertilizer”, “Medium and Trace Element Fertilizer”, “Fertilizer Production and Technology”, “Plant Nutrition and Nutrient Utilization”. Two Dialog Forums with the theme of “The Conversion on Fertilizers between China and the World” and “World Fertilizer Opportunities in China” will also be held during the conference. In addition, the conference also set up a 3,000 square meters of results and product display area, more than 40 fertilizer companies to participate in the exhibition, showcase the new achievements and new products of the fertilizer industry, and conduct on-site exchanges with experts and industry peers.

The WFC offers a high-level platform for Chinese Scientists and enterprises, to learn status of world fertilizer science research and trend of industry development, to learn and exchange advance experience for developing fertilizer and application, to resolve lower fertilizer use efficiency and environment problem in China, to advertise fertilizer research and outcome of enterprise production and application. The congress will accelerate discipline development of soil nutrition and fertilizer, and promote rapid development of fertilizer industry. It is meaningful to achieve fertilizer zero growth, and is a science practice for national construction strategy of ecological civilization and concept of green development.

In addition, the annual meeting of Stabilized Fertilizer Industrial Alliance and Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Committee of Soil Science Society of China (SSSC) were held concurrently. The two meetings carried out in-depth discussions on the theme of stable fertilizer technology innovation and agricultural green development, which complemented the World Fertilizer Congress to form a grand gathering of the academy and industry of fertilizer.