At the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, national leaders brought up "Eight Major Actions" for African countries. In response, GZU held a Training Class on the New Modern Agricultural Technology for China and African Countries under the Background of “Belt and Road Initiative” at the University of The Gambia (UTG) on June 18th. The training is a foreign assistance program sponsored by the Ministry of Education.

The delegation led by Professor Cheng Jianping, also Vice Dean of GZU's Agricultural College, was greeted by Ms. Njie, a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and a number of UTG staff including Anjum, Vice Chancellor of administration; Jain, Vice Chancellor; Babatund, Dean of the College of Agriculture; Manneh, Director of the ranch, and Fan Chaokang, Chinese Dean of the Confucius Institute.

Anjum, Vice Chancellor of UTG, extended a warm welcome to the delegation. He hopes to collaborate further with GZU in more areas such as high-level professional training programs on agricultural technology, given that Gambia does not have a solid agricultural foundation.

GZU has appointed six professors who are exceedingly experienced in the agricultural field for training sessions. Altogether 50 people from UTG including faculty, postgraduate students and undergraduates attended the lectures. The information introduced in the lectures was so inspirational that many trainees stuck around after the sessions for further discussion. Some students said that they would love to join the GZU's agriculture research team, and others demonstrated a strong desire to study agricultural technology at GZU.

The training is scheduled to end on June 21.

Text & Photography: the Confucius Institute of UTG

Chief Editor: Liang Yukun

Senior Editor: Tang Juan

Translator: Li Xiaorong

Proofreading: Zoe Novak, Zhou Jie