TIANJIN, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has expanded agricultural cooperation through its demonstration base for agricultural technology exchanges and training in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The base has established 11 demonstration parks of agricultural technology in other SCO countries to carry out trials of crop varieties and farming technologies, Wu Wengang, vice governor of Shaanxi Province, made the remarks at a press briefing in the port city of Tianjin on Saturday.

Agriculture is a key area of regional economic cooperation for the SCO. The SCO agricultural base was established in the Yangling Agricultural Hi-tech Industrial Demonstration Zone in 2019.

According to Wu, the base has built four laboratories with countries including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, focusing on dryland farming, green crop production, smart agriculture and digital agriculture to advance agricultural science and technology cooperation and joint research on critical technologies.

Wu said further efforts will be made to strengthen practical cooperation in areas such as seed development for dryland farming and water-saving irrigation.

The largest-ever SCO annual summit takes place in Tianjin from Sunday to Monday. ■