China trip of the trans4num coordination team [19.12.23]
The trip gave trans4num Europe important insights into possible synergies with partners from trans4num China and econutri in the future.
trans4num Europa/China
Andrea Knierim, Qirui Li and and Sara Yasaminshirazi from the coordination team Hohenheim went on a trip to China for meeting partners of the trans4num project and joining the trans4num China Kick-off meeting (KoM). During this trip they got rich information on demonstration farms including visits of the demonstration base of “Returning straw to the field with mushroom” in Shangqiu, Henan and the research team at Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (HAAS) in Zhengzhou conducting research on “Research and Application of Straw Fertilizing Technology for High-value Utilization of Fertilized Soil”. AT HAAS Andrea gave a lecture for 50 audiences about the “Advisory services” and “trans4num Europe”.
The official KoM trans4num China started at the 1st of November at CAAS including keynote speeches of some guests from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, EU-Delegation in China and inner Mongolia Academy of Agriculture. Afterward, Andrea presented the design, main components, and main involved partners of trans4num-EU. Li gave an insight into the NBS sites and their main practices, as well as the organizational work done in the first year of the project. The morning session was wrapped up by a round table discussion with some remarks from different experts and political decision-makers in China's Agricultural sector. In the afternoon session, the external trans4num guests left the Chinese consortium, and from the EU consortium, 16 participants (from 9 organizations) attended the meeting online. Seven Chinese partners presented their tasks and sup-projects, methodology, and the potential cooperation counter partner from the European consortium. This was followed by the introduction of the European consortium and their working packages and tasks in trans4num. Coming to the discussion part, the EU consortium collected their experience and insights concerning their experiences in the first year of the project and shared them with the Chinese partners. Meanwhile, the Chinese partners discussed their key interest in collaborating with EU partners on specific Working Packages and debated the challenges and concerns they perceive for the China Consortium after seeing the one-year implementation for the EU partners.
The KoM was followed by a joint meeting at CAU with partners from CAAS, HAAS, CAU, and SWU to discuss common interests of trans4num China and Europe. Another meeting was held with one of the trans4num partners from Tsinghua University (THU), Institute of Journalism and Communication. After being informed that the Chinese consortium of econutri (the sister project of trans4num) has also been funded, the Hohenheim delegation visited the project coordinator at CAU.
The China trip continued with another short weekend trip to Yangxin County in Shandong province. There, the coordination team met a successful entrepreneur and two local farmers supported by the entrepreneurs services such as training, supplying seeds, fertilizer, machinery, and harvesting. Additionally, this company conducts various experiments to determine the best practices for the farming system in different provinces. On the second day of the Shandong trip, Andrea Knierim met the local county governor and small- and large-scale farmers of this county to get a deeper insight into agriculture in China.
On the 06th of November, Andrea Knierim gave a lecture titled “Changes and Continuities in Agricultural Advisory Work. A European Perspective” for the professors and junior researchers at the Agricultural Information Institute of CAAS. On the 08th, our fruitful trip ended.
We look forward to meeting our Chinese partners and exploring China in a bigger round from the EU consortium in the next trip.
