At the invitation of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), JAAS launched the “Training of Trainers Programme” in Sri Lanka to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable smallhold farmers. Mr. Gamini Samarasinghe, Addl Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture of Sri Lanka, Mr. Abdul Rahim Siddiqui, WFP Representative in Sri Lanka, and Ms. Maha Ahmed, Deputy Country Director of WFP China and Prof. Wang Ran, member of CPC Party Committee of JAAS, attended the opening ceremony. More than 160 officials from the Ministry of Agriculture of Sri Lanka, technicians from agricultural research institutions and representatives of farmers participated in the training.
Wang Ran introduced JAAS’s achievements in scientific and technological innovation, team building, technical transfer and international cooperation, reviewed the exchanges and cooperation between JAAS and WFP, and hoped that through this remote agricultural technology training, JAAS’s advanced technology and experience would spread to Sri Lanka, solve the problems faced by local agricultural production, further promote South-South cooperation and tripartite cooperation, and contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the agricultural progress of other developing countries.
Abdul Rahim Siddiqui expressed Sri Lanka’s urgent need to introduce advanced agricultural technology to ensure food security under the conditions of climate change, and hoped to establish long-term cooperation with JAAS through this training. Maha Ahmed introduced WFP's "SSTC Training of Trainers Programme" for developing countries, and expressed her gratitude to JAAS for providing technical support.
Four JAAS experts Profs. Zhu Fanglin and Lu Xiaolan from the Department of Technical Transfer, Prof. Zhang Yadong from the Institute of Food Crops, and Prof. Shen Guiyin from the Institute of Agricultural Economics conducted remote teaching and answered the questions on the topics of rice cultivation and breeding, full-process mechanized production of crops, agricultural socialization services, and agricultural product markets via online methods.
