On August 30, the 2021 Meeting of the Joint Steering Committee of the “China-FAO-Netherlands” Tripartite Cooperation Project led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was held online.

Ye Anping, Director of FAO’s Department of South-South and Tripartite Cooperation, delivered a speech at the meeting. He said that despite the difficulties in online communication and the huge challenge of Covid-19, the three project implementation partners, Wageningen University (WUR), the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center (FECC) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China and the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (FFRC), have maintained very smooth communication and achieved good initial results.

Director Xu Pao said in his concluding speech that FFRC has provided solid human, financial, and material guarantees in terms of organization and leadership, expert deployment, and work promotion. Especially in joint aquaculture research, the “Nutrient Pond” breeding experiment designed for the actual demands of Ethiopia and other African countries has been successfully completed and has achieved expected results.

Participants also conducted in-depth discussions on the project-related budget allocation, feasibility of extension, African pilot schedule, work coordination, experience and lessons, etc., laying the foundation for the smooth implementation of the next phase of project tasks.