5,000 square meters of multi-span intelligent glass greenhouse, 100 mu multi-span greenhouse, seven industrial functional districts and 13 key agricultural projects...

This is the scene of Lubumbashi University Farm in Katanga Province, Congo (DRC), which was once desolate. It is also the result of the Huayou-Congo (DRC) Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park which has been stationed in 2011 for five years.

On the afternoon of November 7, the reporter followed the experts and scholars from Zhejiang University who participated in the project of "Huayou-Congo (Kinshasa) Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park" to visit the headquarters of Huayou Cobalt Industry, one of the leading enterprises in the world cobalt industry and one of the sponsors of the project, located in Tongxiang Economic Development Zone.

In the past five years, the modern agricultural park jointly built by Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Industry Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang University and Lubumbashi University in Katanga Province, Congo (Kinshasa) has basically satisfied the food and vegetable supply of the company's employees and the vast majority of local Chinese-funded enterprises. It has also improved the educational level and the teaching staff of Luda, and enriched the dietary structure of local people.

In this new way of foreign aid, which involves the interaction between workers and peasants, the linkage between schools and enterprises, win-win situation and mutually beneficial development, they sowed the seeds of friendship between China and Africa, sang a song of harvest, and left a different youth memory for the students of Zhejiang University who have been rooted for many years.

They also have a bigger dream: in the near future, the project will be incorporated into the National Demonstration Center for African assistance, so that more Africans can enjoy the all-round warmth from technology imparting to food supply, and more private enterprises and scientific research achievements will go to the world.

Multinational Cooperation between Schools and Enterprises, 8,000 Mu of Waste Land into Farms

Half a year's time for trial and selection, half a year's time, and a half year will be 800 mu of corn, 150 mu of rice, 50 acres of vegetables, and pigs, sheep and cattle. In another half a year, there will be 3000 mu of crops. At the headquarters briefing, Zhang Shengguan, the director of the park and assistant president of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Industry Co., Ltd., said that this was the plan of Huayou-Congo (Kinshasa) Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park five years ago. Today, nearly 8,000 mu of modern agricultural park has been built on the 20,000 Mu old Luda farm. "It takes a long time to go around by helicopter." Unexpectedly, the original intention of the park was to solve the problem of food for employees of companies and Chinese-funded enterprises.

Huayou cobalt industry has been involved in Africa since 2003, and joined Huagang project in the development of copper and cobalt mines in Congo (DRC) in 2008. With the progress of the project, Huayou cobalt industry has more than 400 expatriates and 1700 local employees. As one of the most hungry countries in the world concerned by FAO, Congo (DRC), despite its arable land area of about 1.7 hectares per capita and abundant rainfall, has a low level of agricultural technology, backward production conditions, extremely low output of various agricultural products, 70% of its grain depends on imports, and its local market food and vegetable supply can not meet the food needs of Chinese enterprises at all, even. At one time, Chinese enterprises purchased food in the local market, which led to food shortage and price surge. The local government also has the idea of upgrading the local agricultural technology level as soon as possible through external assistance and solving the food security problem as soon as possible.

As the first batch of graduates of Zhejiang Agricultural University after the resumption of college entrance examination, Zhang Shengguan has always had a dream of "doing modern agriculture". In response to the general requirements of Zhejiang University's social service and its national diplomatic strategy of "basing itself on Zhejiang, serving the west, facing the whole country and going to the world", Huayou Company and Zhejiang University first launched a motion to establish "Zhejiang University-Huayou Africa Agricultural Development Center" in Africa at the end of 2009. The main movers are Zhou Weijun, professor of Zhejiang Agricultural University, Zhang Guoping, director of the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Environmental Sciences, and Zhang Mingfang, director of Zhejiang Regional Cooperation Department.

At that time, the farm of Lubumbashi University was abandoned because of lack of funds, talent and technology. Some local people built small houses here. Vehicles brought garbage, piled it on the wasteland, and there were ever-expanding ant bags. The highest height was more than ten meters, which looked like a hill from a distance.

In the past five years, they have traveled to Congo (Kinshasa) several times, including professors from the Institute of Ecological Planning, Zhejiang University, etc. to study and determine farm planning and selection of varieties through soil and water sample analysis.

In January 2011, Zhejiang University and Huayou Cobalt Industry Co., Ltd. signed a cooperation agreement in Tongxiang City, Zhejiang Province: funded by Huayou Cobalt Industry Co., Ltd. and supported by the Congo (DRC) government, and jointly with the University of Zhejiang and Lubumbashi, in three to five years, to establish Huayou-DRC Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone in order to upgrade the level of local agricultural development and serve as regional food and food. Vegetable self-sufficiency construction provides demonstration and guarantee.

From offices, multimedia classrooms and experimental centers to the first large-scale chicken farm and pig farm in the region, which was completed in September 2012, including the main bodies of seven industrial functional districts and 13 key agricultural engineering parks, it became the first modernization on the land of Congo (DRC) in Africa to be built by universities and enterprises in cooperation. Agricultural Park.

As the first batch of graduates of Zhejiang Agricultural University after the resumption of college entrance examination, Zhang Shengguan has always had a dream of "doing modern agriculture". In response to the general requirements of Zhejiang University's social service and its national diplomatic strategy of "basing itself on Zhejiang, serving the west, facing the whole country and going to the world", Huayou Company and Zhejiang University first launched a motion to establish "Zhejiang University-Huayou Africa Agricultural Development Center" in Africa at the end of 2009. The main movers are Zhou Weijun, professor of Zhejiang Agricultural University, Zhang Guoping, director of the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Environmental Sciences, and Zhang Mingfang, director of Zhejiang Regional Cooperation Department.

At that time, the farm of Lubumbashi University was abandoned because of lack of funds, talent and technology. Some local people built small houses here. Vehicles brought garbage, piled it on the wasteland, and there were ever-expanding ant bags. The highest height was more than ten meters, which looked like a hill from a distance.

Scientific and technological research and development are also being carried out simultaneously: large-scale maize/wheat planting technology from Zhejiang University team, vegetable cultivation technology in tropical dry season and solar-powered irrigation facilities have been built one after another to adapt to the local agricultural production conditions with clear dry and rainy seasons and sufficient sunshine.

In the progress of the whole project, the heads of the Ministry of Agriculture's Foreign Economic Cooperation Center and the Department of Foreign Aid of the Ministry of Commerce also participated in the planning, evaluation and construction of the park and supported the project in all aspects.

Today, Zhang Shengguan spends half of his year in Africa. He told reporters that the purpose of his return was to prepare for the company's annual meeting on the 12th. After that, he would go to Africa again.

Among the local Chinese personnel, it is worth mentioning that the scientific research forces of Zhejiang Agricultural College devoted themselves to the development of this huge agricultural kingdom. They left their homeland and watered every plant there with knowledge and sweat.

Teachers and students of Zhejiang University take root in Africa and change the world with knowledge and hands

Li Bo, born in 87, was the first Zhejiang University student to set foot on African land. He has now returned to work in the Institute of Urban and Rural Planning and Design of Zhejiang University. He also has a company providing comprehensive consultation and promotion of agricultural science and technology. In the past three years, he has held several jobs: variety testing, power generation well drilling, planning and management, and marketing promotion. He was a non-rooted expatriate teacher and student. The longest one.

In June of 2011, after the project was officially launched, Li Bo, a graduate student of Zhejiang University of Agriculture, took four technicians to the land of Congo (DRC), without electricity or water, and lived in a small house with a hundred-year history left by Belgians. From power generation to well drilling, from planning to management, from variety experiments to product promotion, Zhejiang University has been struggling in the front line. Li Bo and his graduate students Liu Ju and Su Sha, who came to the farm one year later, have been carrying out several dietary consumption structure analysis and variety screening experiments in airlifting over 200 vegetable, melon and fruit varieties from China, as well as dozens of rice, rape, barley, wheat and other crops, in accordance with the local climate and market demand characteristics. They have also been in good time with their teachers in e-mail, Wechat and so on. Through communication and Discussion on the internet, dozens of vegetable, fruit and crop varieties suitable for local promotion were finally screened out, which greatly enriched the basket of local people and local Chinese employees.

In this process, the yield of 300 mu maize planted with Zhejiang Dalian technology can reach about 10 tons per hectare, nearly double that of local maize. The yield of hybrid rice planted locally is over 1000 kg per mu, and that of conventional rice is over 800 kg per mu. The sweetness and weight of melon planted locally are increased by more than 40%.

The park also actively cooperates with local government agricultural authorities, communities and universities in various forms, providing a series of practical technical training for local farmers, providing free seeds, pesticides and agricultural textbooks, disseminating new ideas and concepts of agricultural planting, and accumulating over 5,000 training sessions for farmers, agricultural technicians and students.

In Tongxiang, the reporter also met Professor Zhou Weijun of Zhejiang Agricultural College. He has visited and investigated the area four times, and conducted technical training and exchanges at the same time. He said that in the future, further varieties improvement will be considered, local unique varieties will be cultivated through hybridization and other means, and the matching technology of variety screening will be carried out, so as to further promote the scientific research achievements of Zhejiang University to the world.

In addition, Zhejiang University is brewing a long-term practice plan for college students. The project plans to select 10 students from different disciplines during the winter vacation each year and take the project to the Congo (Kinshasa). It is reported that Zhejiang University now has more than 1,000 undergraduates participating in international exchanges every year. Most of them go to developed areas such as Europe, the United States and Japan. The University hopes to provide more opportunities, especially for undergraduates who study international politics, humanities, Social Sciences and agriculture. When planning their career development, they will have a broader vision, understand different countries and social forms, and make individuals better. Development is in line with the needs of the country.

At the same time, as part of the inter-school cooperation, many young teachers from Luda are studying in Zhejiang Agricultural College, and three have gone on to pursue doctoral studies. The Modern Agricultural Park of Zhejiang University is also the practice base and the second classroom for Lu students. At the same time, more than 20 teachers and students, including Professor Zhang Guoping, have visited the African Agricultural Park many times to carry out academic exchanges and technical demonstration training, and strive to build a Congo (DRC) and even the whole African agricultural cooperation platform through agricultural technology.

In April this year, Vice Minister of Agriculture Qu Dongyu visited the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, Italy, and signed a tripartite cooperation document with the Director-General of FAO and representatives of the Congo (DRC). In the next two years, FAO will provide US$1.5 million in technical assistance funds to carry out agricultural technology in the Congo (DRC) by relying on the Zhejiang University-Huayou African Agricultural Demonstration Park Project Base. Technical assistance to promote crop production and food safety in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In May, on the basis of a joint visit to the park by FAO special inspection team and experts from the Ministry of Agriculture of China, the project was included in the scope of FAO's Technology Demonstration cooperation under the framework of "South-South cooperation".

In this transnational school-enterprise cooperation, the efforts and changes in the past five years are only the beginning. They hope that in the near future, agricultural assistance, including breed cultivation, cultivation technology and aquaculture technology, will be radiated to the whole Congo (Kinshasa), and even become a model of agricultural demonstration parks on the whole African continent, and will be included in national aid projects for Africa, in the history of China-Africa friendship. Leave a golden harvest footprint.

Source: Zhejiang Daily - Zhejiang News Client

Reporter Yu Jiji