From August 25th to September 7th, the Seminar on the Sustainable Development of Tropical Agriculture for Caribbean Areas, sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, PRC, and organized by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences（CATAS）, was held in Sanya, Hainan, and concluded in Weifang, Shandong. A total of 14 agricultural officials from 4 countries including Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Cuba, and Antigua and Barbuda participated in the training. Hu Yiyun, Vice Director of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, PRC, and Li Jihua, Vice President of CATAS attended relevant activities.

Hu Yiyun said at the opening ceremony that China and Caribbean countries has a long-standing friendship, and agriculture, as a key area for our cooperation, is highly complementary and has broad prospects for cooperation. It is hoped that all the trainees will apply what they have learned from China to their work and achieve more results in promoting friendly exchanges and win-win cooperation with China.

Group photo at the opening ceremony

At the closing ceremony, Li Jihua, on behalf of CATAS, briefly reviewed the 14 days of training and congratulated all the trainees on their successful completion of the training courses. He pointed out that the sustainable development of tropical agriculture cannot be separated from the continuous drive of scientific and technological innovation, and called on the trainees to continue to pay attention to the development of China after returning home, and closely contact CATAS to work together to promote the high-quality development of tropical agriculture. 

 Certificate Issue

As one of the specific actions to implement the Third China–CELAC Ministerial Consensus on Agricultural Priority Areas, this training course focuses on the development needs of Caribbean countries in tropical crop industries such as coconut, cassava, banana, coffee, and cocoa. Industry experts are invited to share the scientific and technological innovation achievements and experiences and practices of sustainable development of China's tropical agriculture with trainees through lectures, discussions, etc., jointly discuss the development path of Caribbean tropical agriculture, and organize trainees to go to Weifang, Shandong to visit the National Comprehensive Pilot Agricultural Zone (Weifang) to learn about China's successful cases of agricultural innovation and opening-up development.

Lectures and field visit

All the trainees actively and enthusiastically cooperated and participated in this training course organized by CATAS. They all expressed that they would apply the knowledge and experience they learned during their visit to China to their own tropical agricultural development practices, actively promote the agricultural development between China and the Caribbean and build a solid bridge for agricultural cooperation.