June 30 of 2023 witnessed the closing ceremony of the Training Course on Tropical Crops Planting Technology for South Pacific Island Countries which is Sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, hosted by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, and organized by the Coconut Research Institute of CATAS. 35 participants from Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Kiribati, and Samoa successfully completed the one-month training.

 Mr. Liu Guodao, Vice President of CATAS, Mr. Gu Wenliang, Agricultural Commissioner of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan, Ms Zhang Xue, an associate research fellow of the division of International Cooperation of CATAS, Ms Xu Lijing, the director of the Center for International Cooperation and Exchange of Coconut Research Institute of CATAS, and other leaders were present at the closing ceremony.

Closing Ceremony

Mr. Liu Guodao congratulated the participants on successfully completing the one-month training course in Hainan province. He also hoped that the participants could bring the new technologies and ideas they’ve learned to their countries and that such training courses could bring stronger international cooperation and better ways to solve development issues to achieve common development.  

Mr. Liu Guodao was making the speech

On behalf of all the participants, Mr. Nakabuta Kabuati from Kiribati expressed heartfelt thanks to the Chinese government and the organizer of the training course, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences. He said that the Chinese expert teams are currently providing technical assistance to Kiribati's Department of Agriculture and Livestock. The Government and the Ministry of Environment, Land and Agricultural Development of Kiribati are very grateful to China. At the same time, based on the recent in-depth understanding of China's strong tropical agricultural science and research, the Ministry of Agriculture of Kiribati decided to cooperate with the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences in the future.

The participants said they had a very pleasant time in China, and experts from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences provided an excellent one-month training, which laid a solid foundation for tropical crop planting technologies in the South Pacific island countries. The Chinese experts imparted agricultural knowledge to the participants and organized field trips. China has strong leadership in promoting agriculture to eradicate poverty, so through this training course, they all have learned a lot and will take what they have learned in China back to their countries to continuously upgrade the agricultural technology and promote tropical agricultural production. They looked forward to further strengthening cooperation between China and the South Pacific island countries to establish a strong strategic cooperative relationship.

After the closing ceremony, all participants from South Pacific Island countries also sang a beautiful song for everyone and presented gifts to leaders and some workers to express their gratitude.

The participants received the certificates and gifts from CATAS

The one-month training training course covers those lectures including the overview of China, China's poverty reduction practices and achievements; coconut cultivation and cropping model for the high production, coconut and lychee processing technology and processing product appreciation, oil palm, oil-tea camellia, vanilla, coffee, sugarcane, tropical vegetables, mango, Anthurium andraeanum, banana, cashew yield cultivation technology, arecanut cultivation and major pests and diseases control technology, characteristic spice germplasm resources and utilization, integration of China's cocoa value industrial chain, etc. During the training course, we also visited and investigated the integrated Research Base of tropical palm processing and comprehensive utilization technology of Coconut Research Institute on coconut processing, the National Tropical Palm Germplasm Resource Nursery for Tropical Palm Resources, the coconut natural enemy breeding factory , the Yueting Agricultural product Processing Industrial Park, and the coconut processing factory of Chunguang Company(a leading coconut enterprise), A window on the world's tropical fruits, Xinglong Tropical Botanical Garden, Hainan Tropical Botanical Garden, Wenchang Dongjiao Coconut Forest, spices variety display of Nanfan base, Sanya Nanfan Industry Development Co., Ltd., Sanya Damao Ocean Ecological Village on tropical agriculture, the Red Flower Shared Farm for Tropical Agriculture, Sanya Yalong Bay International Rose Valley for Tourism Agriculture, Yunshe Songtao Village, Cattle and Wenchang Chicken Culture System in Gongpo Village of Wenchang, Fongjiawan modern Fishery Industrial Park in Wenchang on fish farming mode, the "Internet + Agriculture" model in Shishan Internet Town of Haikou, Haikou International Duty Free City on the commercial operation mode of imported commodities, Haikou coconut carving school, the exhibition hall of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Hainan Li and Miao minority culture, Haikou Qi-Lou Arcade Street, Hainan shell carving school, etc. We also organized the discussions on the theme of the tropical crop planting technology, the presentation of country report of the South Pacific island countries and the mechanism of cooperation between China and the South Pacific Island countries on tropical agricultural science and technology.

 The participants sang a song together

One participant presented a gift to the leader of CATAS

Group photo