Chinese officials set up grower training course in Sri Lanka

A China-backed tropical fruit grower training course kicked off on 9 November at the University of Ruhuna in Sri Lanka’s Southern Province, according to a report by Xinhua.

The three-day training course was co-organised by the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences and the foreign affairs office of China’s Hainan Province to provide insights on tropical fruit seedling propagation and high-efficiency production technology. According to Xinhua, course trainees included agricultural technicians, researchers, students, and fruit growers from Southern Province.

The course included lectures and field study opportunities showcasing advanced cultivation and production methods for growing bananas, pineapples and mangoes.

The course was opened with a launch ceremony attended by Chinese ambassador to Sri Lanka Wei Huaxiang. Wei expressed hopes the course would further expand exchanges and cooperation between China and Sri Lanka in the field of tropical agriculture, contribute Chinese solutions to the sustainable development of Sri Lanka’s agriculture, and bring more benefits to the people of Sri Lanka, Xinhua said.

W.L.O. Manel, an agricultural official of Southern Province, also spoke at the event and called out Sri Lanka and China’s solid foundation for agricultural cooperation, adding that the training course would mark the beginning of broader prospects for agricultural cooperation between the two countries in the future.

Tropical fruits have already been a focus of the two countries’ agricultural cooperation.

The China-FAO Sri Lanka South-South Cooperation Project, which ran from 2023-2025, introduced fruit bagging and precise drip irrigation to Sri Lankan growers across ten demonstration sites.

The project reportedly boosted banana output by 70 per cent and mango yield by over 50 per cent, while cutting fertiliser use by 72 per cent