Chinese Government funds Phase 2 of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Technical Assistance Project (linked to Record ID#55550)

Project narrative

On February 22, 2018, the ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Sao Tome and Principe signed the agreement for Phase 2 of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Technical Assistance Project. The monetary value of this project is unknown. On July 16, 2018, a group of high-level officials from STP participated in an agricultural and animal husbandry training course in Beijing, marking the start of this project. Phase I of this project is recorded in the linked Record ID#55550. This phase is slated to last two years and will include Chinese technical assistance to teach agriculture and fishing. The Chinese Embassy in STP indicates that Phase I was more small-scale and experimental while Phase II will see the project be implemented more widely. The technical assistance project was expected to end in August 2020. While most of the team left Sao Tome and Principe at this time, animal husbandry expert Wei Wangfei stayed behind with a Portuguese translator and one other agricultural expert, forming a "stay behind" group of the agricultural technical assistance group. On August 10, 2020, at the invitation of the Shengpu Pig Breeding Development Project, Wei Wangfei held a demonstration training on piglet castration surgery and minimally invasive pig hernia surgery at the Shengpu Pig Development Center in Nova Olinda Town, Cantagalo County. On November 26, 2020, the stay behind second agricultural technical assistance team donated a batch of 1,200 fertile duck eggs of Beijing Cherry Valley Ducks. On December 23, 2020, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of Sao Tome and Principe held a ceremony to issue certificates of honor to the members of the Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Technical Assistance Project team.