China constructs an agricultural demonstration center at UWI St. Augustine (linked to project #39946)

On June 2, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to built one to two demonstration centers within the next three years to showcase agricultural technologies. The pledge was made at a luncheon with leaders of Trinidad, Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, Dominica, Barbados, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Grenada, Antigua, and Barbuda. This pledge resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding on December 10, 2014 between the University of the West Indies (UWI) and China Agricultural University (CAU) to establish a 200 acre Agricultural Innovation Park at UWI St. Augustine. The park is set to contain technology service, horticulture, aquatic production, mini zoo, leisure and recreation and commercial entertainment zones. The agreement also provided for joint collaboration between the parties in training graduate students at the master and doctoral level, as well as the possibility of a Joint Degree Program. The first stage of the facility, an innovation focused teaching farm, opened on October 23 2015. It has been experimenting with a variety of Chinese crops and has begun developing methods for sustainable intensive agriculture in an island setting. In 2018, the farm additionally started raising livestock, including dairy cows and goats. In October 2019, the site planted 105 breadfruit trees as part of a World Food Day planting ceremony, and holds weekly farm sales. ID #39946 denotes a training of students.

Number of official sources

18

Number of total sources

21