Celebrating 100th anniversary of CPC | China’s greenhouse cultivation techniques help Vanuatu grow vegetables in rainy season

Agriculture is the most important industry of Vanuatu. Over 90 percent of its people rely on agriculture to make a living.

However, during every rainy season, even Vanuatu's farmers have no vegetables to eat. They are not able to plant any kinds of vegetables, as the storms and heavy rains keep on twisting and they have no facilities for water conservancy and production. Local markets therefore are unable to provide vegetables. This situation has lasted for many years.

The Training Courses on Greenhouse Vegetable Cultivation Techniques for Developing Countries, which started in 2019 and were held by the Chinese government under its China-aid Human Resource Development Cooperation Program, helped Vanuatu improve the situation.

Chinese experts showed agricultural technicians how to build, use and maintain greenhouse facilities to effectively solve the problem of vegetable growing during the rainy season.

Kartuk, a participant in the training course, was attending the course for the second time. He told the experts that through the last course he took, the yield of vegetables on his own farm was greatly improved and he can now earn an extra 1 million watts a year.

He also said that the experts give equal importance to practicality and interest when sharing their knowledge, not only using audio, video and other teaching methods, but also showing students on-site how to make food, which was fun and educational.

The course content is designed for local conditions, including climate, pests, popular vegetables and technology levels, Kartuk said.

Charlot Salwai, then prime minister of Vanuatu, visited the training site. He asked about the construction of the greenhouses in detail and checked the various types of vegetables grown in the sample plots. Salwai praised the training results of Chinese experts.

Serimaya, minister of agriculture of Vanuatu, came to the training site three times and encouraged the trainees to actively learn and ask questions, as well as share their experience and knowledge with others to promote the production of anti-seasonal vegetables in Vanuatu.

At the closing ceremony of the training course, Serimaya said he hopes such courses can be continued in other provinces of Vanuatu so as to improve the technical level of Vanuatu's vegetable industry and benefit more farmers.