On April 28, 2022, the evaluation team of the Asian Food and Agriculture Initiative Program - AFACI, Korea came to work with the Soils and Fertilizers Research Institute (SFI).

Assoc. Dr. Tran Minh Tien, Director of SFI; representative of the Department of Science and International Cooperation and some members participating in the project "Development of the Soil Atlas of Asia and National Soil Information System - SOIL" funded by AFACI were attended to the meeting. On the side of the AFACI reviewing team, three members are Dr. Lee Yong Hwa, the Korea Rural Development Administration (RDA), leader; Dr. Woojae Kim - Deputy Secretary General of the AFACI program; and Dr. Dongjin Lee – International Project Coordinator of AFACI Program.

After listening to the project team's representative present the results achieved so far, Dr. Dr. Lee Yong Hwa, on behalf of the reviewers, expressed his impression of the project's workload in Vietnam. This is a multi-country project, under the joint coordination of FAO, to develop soil map of Asia, to develop soil properties maps and soil information systems for the particapated countries, and also to improve capacity for reseachers participating in the project. Currently, Vietnam has successfully completed many works such as collecting soil data and soil information, producing soil properties maps under the guidance of FAO experts based on collected databases.

The reviewing team also emphasized the promotion of communication for SOIL project activities and results in Vietnam in order to bring the results to all levels of management, policy makers, researchers and other interested stakeholders.

In addition, the two sides also discussed more about common concerns for agriculture in general and the fields of soil, fertilizer and microorganisms in particular, in order to enhance cooperation activities between the two organizations. The SFI also presented the work plan in the coming period, and wished to organize a workshop on research results. In mid-2022, the Institute will co-host with FAO to organize a training workshop for participating countries in Ha Noi.