Chinese Government provides $4.2 million for Agricultural Technical Assistance Project

Project narrative

From July 25, 2018 to August 6, 2018, a delegation of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS) conducted a field feasibility study for an Agricultural Technical Assistance Project in the Gambia. The delegation was comprised of 9 scientists from CATAS, and was led by the vice-president of the organization, Professor Liu Guodao. The team of experts visited 31 proposed project sites in various provinces. Then, in early March 2019, a group of agricultural expert from China arrived in the Gambia to implement an Agricultural Technical Assistance Project (with $4.2 million of grant funding from the Chinese Government). The team brought advanced agricultural technology and agricultural machinery, and carried out agricultural demonstrations and farmer training in Sapu within the country’s Central River Region. Longping Hi-Tech was the contractor responsible for project implementation. On November 26, 2019, President of the Gambia Adama Barrow, Chinese Ambassador to the Gambia Maa Jiangchun, and Executive Vice President of Longping Hi-Tech Experts Peng Guangjian attended a rice cultivation ceremony as part of the Agricultural Technical Assistance Project. They visited Sapu to see the progress in the paddy rice cultivation fields that had been made thanks to the team of Chinese agricultural experts that was in Sapu during the spring of 2019. Rice production during that season was expected to be 30% higher because of the help of the Chinese agricultural teams. Then on June 19, 2021, the Chinese Ambassador and Gambian officials held another rice harvesting ceremony. This project has reached completion; however, its precise completion date is unknown.