On April 16, 2022, the National Magnesium Network (NMN) symposium on soil magnesium effectiveness, leaching characteristics and magnesium management organized by the International Magnesium Institute (IMI) was held offline and online. This symposium, in fact, provided the platform for the initial meeting of the thematic research project assigned at the 2021 year-end meeting of NMN and to exchange and discuss the current relevant research results and findings of this project.

The symposium was chaired by Liangquan Wu, associate professor of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) and young teachers of IMI. More than 20 young researchers and graduate students from NMN participated in this symposium. The symposium summarized and discussed the research findings of soil magnesium leaching characteristics, magnesium nutrient management, magnesium effectiveness and its influencing factors in different crop systems, e.g., rapeseed, vegetables, tea, citrus, sugarcane, wax gourd, tobacco, pineapple, pepper, navel orange and pomelo. Moreover, specific tasks and personnel arrangements for further research work were assigned and clarified. Professor Chunjian Li, Executive Deputy Director of the IMI and China Agricultural University, summarized the symposium and put forward suggestions for further research work: various crop systems should be used to establish the abundance and deficiency indexes of soil magnesium, and leaf magnesium concentration in different crops; a deeper understanding of soil magnesium processes (conversion, fixation, release, ion interaction) is needed.

This symposium provided a more comprehensive understanding of soil magnesium availability and its influencing factors, soil magnesium leaching characteristics and magnesium management in different crops, and put forward the comprehensive future research direction and tasks.