Source: Global Times - Global Network
On the large and small islands in the Pacific Ocean, coconuts are one of the most important local agricultural products. However, in these island countries, which have the unique advantage of growing tropical plants, the lack of planting technology and talents has become the main factor restricting the economic income and living standards of farmers. In the agricultural cooperation between China and Pacific island countries, "teaching people to fish" has become the core concept, and the Chinese institutions represented by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences have overcome many difficulties and brought tangible benefits to coconut growers in Micronesia, Tonga, Kiribati and other countries through agricultural technical assistance.
The Federated States of Micronesia is an island nation with a land area of only 702 square kilometers in the North-Central Pacific Ocean, which is related to Hainan, China, thousands of miles apart by coconuts. In December 2017, The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China sent an agricultural working group to the Federation of Michigan to conduct agricultural and fishery investigation and research, and proposed to the Michigan government departments to help establish a "high-yield coconut demonstration base, moringa demonstration base, fungus grass production base" and other Sino-Micomerial cooperation proposals. Since then, the government of Hainan Province and The Government of Bonape Prefecture, where the capital of the United States of America, Palikir, is located, signed a memorandum on the construction of a demonstration garden for standardized coconut planting, and the Hainan Provincial Government has allocated funds to entrust the Coconut Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences to go to the Federation of Michigan to start the construction of the Sino-Michigan Coconut Planting Demonstration Garden.
Xu Lijing, director of the International Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Coconut Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, told the Global Times reporter on the 27th that at present, the infrastructure construction project of the Sino-Mi coconut planting demonstration garden has been completed, and 20 acres of coconut standardized planting demonstration garden have been built. The demonstration effect produced by the establishment of the demonstration garden will play a positive role in the long-term promotion and scientific and technological cooperation between the mainland and Bonape in Micronesia and other states in the future.
Xu Lijing told the Global Times reporter that the main materials in Micronesia should be imported from abroad, and even some daily fruits and vegetables need to rely on foreign supplies, sometimes the supply is difficult to sustain, and the imported agricultural products are expensive, and ordinary people can't afford to eat. Limited by the backwardness of land and agricultural technology, daily agricultural products can not meet the needs of their own people, and the high cost of agricultural production and backward technology also make it difficult for local people to earn money from agricultural production. "For Pacific island countries like the Commonwealth of Michigan, agricultural technical assistance is the most direct and effective way to improve the living standards of local people." Xu Lijing said.
For locals, the demonstration garden brings new planting patterns and concepts. Chinese experts demonstrated the wide and narrow row planting mode of coconuts and the three-dimensional economic model of various coconut gardens through training, taught biological control techniques for diseases and insect pests, and changed the concept of local students, farmers and the government on traditional coconut planting models, so that they realized that the scientific planting and management of crops is an important way to improve land utilization and farmers' income.
Over the past few years, Chinese agricultural experts have overcome various difficulties to work in this remote island country: Micronesia is one of the most rainy regions in the world, and rainfall often causes weeks or even months of construction to be impossible; Chinese experts and staff in Miria have to withstand the test of local high temperature and high humidity weather; and the sudden outbreak of new crown pneumonia has also caused the interruption of personnel exchanges between China and Secret Countries, making it difficult for the two sides to exchange visits.
In addition to Micronesia, china's cooperation with Pacific island countries around coconuts has also expanded to Kiribati, Tonga and other countries. In November 2021, under the coordination of the Chinese Embassy in Kiribati, the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences and the Kiribati Public Service Office jointly held a video training conference on the comprehensive utilization of the coconut industry. At the invitation of the Chinese Embassy in Kiribati, the Coconut Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences has completed the Kiribati Coconut Processing Technology and Equipment Selection Program, and will participate in the online seminar invited by the Chinese Embassy in Kiribati and other representatives.
This year, the Coconut Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences will send planting and plant protection experts to assist Hunan International Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. in implementing the coconut seedling cultivation and pest control content of the sixth phase of the Ministry of Commerce's China-aided Tonga Agricultural Technical Assistance Project, and help the Tonga government formulate the "Tonga Coconut Industry Ten-Year Development Plan".
Represented by crops such as coconuts and fungal grasses, agricultural cooperation between China and Pacific island countries has progressed rapidly. The "List of Facts on China-Pacific Island Countries Cooperation" recently released by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentions that China has implemented a number of agricultural technical assistance projects in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, the Federation of Miasma, Samoa and other island countries, helping island countries improve their agricultural production capacity and food security level by sending agricultural experts, building demonstration farms, training demonstration farmers, promoting good crops, and providing technical support.
Some local Chinese businessmen told the Global Times reporter that most of the Pacific island countries are typical tropical areas, rich in tropical plant germplasm resources, and China and regional countries have a broad space for cooperation in the field of tropical crop planting and breeding. Liu Ze, secretary general of the Solomon Chinese Chamber of Commerce, told the Global Times that due to the abundant sunshine and freshwater resources, the Solomon Islands are very suitable for growing tropical plants such as coconuts and palms. Chen Canyan, president of the Fiji-China Agricultural And Commercial Development Promotion Association and vice president of the Fiji New Overseas Chinese Friendship Association, believes that with the establishment and improvement of the logistics network, it is expected that more tropical crops in Fiji can enter China.