Chinese government funds bilateral seminar with Barbados on agricultural technology and processing

Project narrative

From June 12 to July 2, 2015, a group of twenty government officials and private-sector professionals from Barbados traveled to China to participate in a bilateral seminar on agricultural technology and agro-processing. The participants visited both the Hainan and Shaanxi provinces, with the seminar combining traditional lectures with tours. The seminar was fully funded by the Chinese government, and was organized through the Academy of International Business Officials (AIBO, under the Chinese Ministry of Commerce). Topics of discussion during the seminar included high efficiency planting techniques for tropical fruits an vegetables, techniques of staple vegetable cultivation, product processing, and prevention and control of diseases and insects prone to destroy tropical fruits and rice. Scholars from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences in Hainan, among others, gave lectures. Trip locations included production bases, research institutes, and large enterprises in the sector. Representatives from the following Barbadian organizations participated in the seminar: the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill Campus), the Barbados Investment & Development Corporation (BIDC), the Ministry of Agriculture, Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC), Barbados Youth in Action, Barbados Community College, Barbados Association of Women in Agriculture, and private sector companies in or around the agricultural sector. This is the second bilateral seminar between the two nations and was specifically designed for representatives from Barbados.