The Commission of the European Communities and the State Science and Technology Com- mission of the People's Republic of China agreed in spring 1987 to establish a Sino- European biotechnology centre. One activity of the centre concerns the organisation of joint scientific workshops in the fields of agriculture and medicine. After a frrst workshop on medicine held in Shanghai in October 1987, the Sino-European Soil Science Workshop, held in Guangzhou from 26 April -I May 1988, was the second one, this time devoted to a particularly important aspect of agriculture -soil science. The South...