China provides grants through ETCAs for Hope Agriculture Training Institute (Linked to Record ID#72079, #72076, #72077, #72080, and #72080)

Project narrative

The Chinese government has provided four grants through Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreements (ETCAs) to support the construction of the Hope Agriculture Training Institute on the following dates: January 18, 2017 (see #72077), October 31, 2017 (#72079), July 5, 2019 (see #72076), and November 29, 2019 (see #72080). A second agricultural development project, the UWI Centre for Food Security and Entrepreneurship agricultural park, was funded through these agreements as well (see Record ID#72081). The exact breakdown in funds is unknown, though reports about the most recent ETCA indicate that a total of around BDS$45 million has been granted by China for the two agricultural projects combined. Chinese government sources report that the January 2017 ETCA funded the exploration of project implementation. The 2018-2019 budget estimates (found at Barbados Parliament or Barbados Treasury source) describe BDS$6,073,000 in "grant funding from the People’s Republic of China to construct the first segment of the Hope Agriculture Training Institute," though it is unclear how much of the total funding to this project this number represents. The Hope Agriculture Training Institute will be located on 45 acres of land at the Hope Plantation in St. Lucy. Its purpose is to provide a physical space for agricultural training programs at a variety of higher-learning institutes, as well as secondary schools primarily in northern Barbados. These higher-learning institutes include Barbados Community College (BCC), Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP), and the Agriculture and Environmental Science program at the University of the West Indies. The space will be used for practical education in livestock rearing, farm management, and crop production. Facilities will include residence halls, demonstration facilities for fruit and vegetable processing, greenhouse technologies, and research labs. An exchange of notes approving pre-project inspections were signed on July 24, 2015, with the inspection expected to be carried out by the Sixth Design and Research Institute of Machinery Industry around October 2015 according to a report from the China International Contractors Association. The team conducting pre-inspections actually arrived December 31, 2015. A report from the Barbadian newspaper The Barbados Advocate notes a team from China arrived in January 2016 for 25 days to perform inspections. Prior to March 25, 2016, the Government of Barbados approved 45 acres of land for use by the Ministry of Education for the institute. A Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) was signed on June 30, 2016 between the Ministry of Education and the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) to confirm cooperation between the two on the institute's creation. More inspections continued into 2018, with a coordination meeting on March 13, 2018, for more inspections and preliminary work. As of August 21, 2019, the Barbados Government Information Service reported that the institute's design review was close to completion, but was not yet finished. The Construction contract has been selected as of Feburary 2022, but no groundbreaking ceremony has occurred.