A group of 29 trainees of the "2023 Training Course on Grain Loss Reduction and Efficiency Improvement Technologies for Developing Countries" paid a study tour to the Zhangjiajie Shanxia Liangtian Agricultural Industrial Park from August 18 to 21. They were officials, experts, and scholars from various agricultural departments and research institutions of developing countries such as Pakistan, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lank. The training course was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of China and organized by Longping High-Tech International Training College.

The Zhangjiajie Shanxia Liangtian Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. established a high-quality rice technology training and guidance center at Zhengjiaping Village, aiming to improve rice cultivation and management techniques and promote agricultural industrialization in Zhangjiajie City. It has established a product quality traceability system, providing reliable raw materials for high-quality rice production in Zhangjiajie. Its soft-shelled turtles ecologically bred in rice fields meet the food standards for healthcare, creating the brand of rice-soft-shelled turtle co-cultivation in Zhangjiajie.

Persons in charge of the Zhangjiajie Shanxia Liangtian Agricultural Industrial Park taught co-culture technologies of rice and soft-shelled turtles to the trainees. They explained the entire process, starting from digging trenches in winter, nurturing seedlings in spring, selecting young soft-shelled turtles, to breeding, mutualism, and harvesting periods. The work staff also demonstrated the differences between monoculture soft-shelled turtle farming and rice-soft-shelled turtle co-culture, and introduced methods of reducing losses and increasing efficiency in the rice fields.

The staff shared that, in the past, Chinese people focused on addressing the problem of having enough to eat, but now, they are concentrating on having better quality food. The trainees expressed great interest in the information shared and pledged to take this technology back to their respective countries. Zhangjiajie Shanxia Liangtian Agricultural Industrial Park makes contributions to spreading China's rice cultivation technology globally and promoting the internationalization of China's hybrid rice industry.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunantoday