1. General situation
From 2021 to 2022, under the strong leadership of China International Development Cooperation Agency, the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Academy for International Business Officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, FFRC has successively undertaken 26 international short-term training programs and 4 foreign aid academic education projects, training a total of 1,451 technical and management officials and 85 master students for 58 Asian, African and Latin American countries. The project implementation rate reached 100%, the enrollment of each project exceeded 55, and the participants came from 102 foreign fishery management departments, research, education, extension institutions and private enterprises, etc., and successfully completed the tasks assigned by the higher departments.
2. Main characteristics of the practice and effectiveness
Build a new team: First, a management team led by DG Xu Pao was formed; Second, 10 teams of lecturers have been established, covering hot topics such as General situation and culture of China, seed breeding, green aquaculture, feed, disease prevention and control, environmental management, processing and quality and safety of aquatic products, fishery economy, resource management, and smart fishery. At the same time, the cultivation of young talents was strengthened, and more than 20 young lecturers were organized to participate in a two-month train-the-trainer training at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and a number of experts were sent to serve as lecturers in the Training Course on Responsible Aquaculture Development organized by Wageningen University.
Launch a new model: In view of the characteristics of online teaching, the “offline self-study + online communication” blended teaching model of Wageningen University was applied to the project. This new model relies on the Padlet platform, covering multiple modules such as program design, pre-course guidance, real-time classroom communication and discussion, post-course homework guidance, group discussions and group reports, and individual training reports.
Cultivate new momentum: While disseminating green, low-carbon and high-yield technologies and models in the field of China’s fishery with the times, FFRC will focus on strengthening the management of study reports, and FFRC plans to compile a collection of reports based on these study reports, and strengthen the design of future cooperation projects on the basis of in-depth research; At the same time, FFRC organized experts to compile 60,000 words of English textbooks on “Standardized Construction and Operation of Aquaculture Industrial Parks” and a series of technical manuals suitable for the major cultured species and models of various countries, such as “Integrated Rice-fish Farming”, “High-yield Breeding and Aquaculture Technology of Tilapia” and “New Breeding and Aquaculture Technologies of Carps”, and shared them with participants’ countries, helping these countries to build a modern fishery industry chain of “one-stop production, supply and marketing, and integration of agriculture, industry and trade” with China’s fishery technology and China’s fishery solutions.
Build new cooperation: FFRC has successively held two sessions of the “Cloud Fair for Fishery Economic and Trade Cooperation among ‘Belt and Road’ Countries”, organized 15 leading agricultural and fishery enterprises at home and abroad to promote and demonstrate new aquatic varieties, feed machinery, processed products, biological agents, aquaculture machinery, ecological aquaculture systems, etc., and successively reached 6 cooperation intentions and signed 3 cooperation agreements to help China’s agricultural and fishery enterprises “go global”; At the same time, FFRC has carried out scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges with Egypt, the Philippines, Mongolia, Tanzania, Cambodia, Uganda and South Africa, and jointly submitted 4 scientific and technological cooperation applications. In addition, FFRC has organized the 2022 Forum on Freshwater Aquaculture Science and Innovation for Belt & Road Countries and the Member Conference of the Global Sustainable Aquaculture Advancement Partnership.
Form New Friendship: Through cloud cultural exchanges, more than 1,500 foreign friends fully understood China’s diplomatic concept of “Amity, Sincerity, Mutual Benefit, and Inclusiveness”, the responsibility and initiative of a major country with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and the main characteristics of Chinese-style modernization. At the same time, in order to further expand the content of the training program, FFRC took the initiative to strengthen communication with Wuxi Municipal Government and the Foreign Affairs Office, and helped Wuxi establish a “Sister province and city” relationship with Ismailia Province in Egypt. Wuxi municipal government hopes to take aquaculture cooperation as the starting point, continue to sublimate bilateral relations, and strive to make the cooperation between FFRC and Suez Canal University a “window and model” for friendly exchanges between the two places. At the same time, FFRC and the Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Province intended to build a platform for friendly cooperation between Jiangsu Province and Uganda.
Show New Strength: Continuously enhancing the influence of China’s fisheries with foreign aid training and publicity. In 2021, during the Global Conference on Aquaculture Millennium +20, Xu Pao, DG of FFRC, attended the “South-South and Triangular Cooperation High-level Roundtable Meeting for Sustainable Aquaculture Development” and gave a keynote report entitled “China’s Sustainable Aquaculture Model and South-South Cooperation Practice for Poverty Reduction through Aquaculture”, introducing China’s achievements in fishery foreign aid to the world; In the past two years, FFRC’s foreign aid programs have been reported from multiple angles for five times in national media such as People’s Daily, China Daily, and Farmer’s Daily, and three of FFRC’s foreign aid achievements have been selected into the “ Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development” by the United Nations South-South Office. In 2023, the Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Province plans to hold “Jiangsu-Africa Development and Poverty Reduction Cooperation and Exchange Conference” and invite FFRC to participate in the conference to introduce cooperation projects and China’s sustainable fishery technologies and models to African countries, which fully expanded the influence of China’s agricultural and fishery foreign aid training.
FFRC is willing to continue to contribute Chinese fishery wisdom and Chinese fishery technology to the construction of a new development pattern of international and domestic dual circulation and the creation of a high-quality aquatic food system with foreign aid training, highlight the strength and responsibility of China’s fishery, and create a bright future for global fishery development!
