China

Le C.A.R.A.H.

International Agronomy / China

Information on training classes on potato at CARAH

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News

March 2019 – 20 years of collaboration with Wuxi County and trials 2019 – Video

January 2019 – François Serneels awarded as one of the 40 most influent foreign experts since the opening of China

November 2017 – Implementation of the CARAH Late Blight warning system in the Yulong Naxi County, Yunnan province

July 2017 – Short video on the work realized and the new objectives of the collaboration with the Wuxi County

May 2017 – First short video on Pierre Raulier’s mission to Inner Mongolia

April 2017 – Succes for the training class on potato crop in Wuxi, Chongqing province

December 2016 – Fifteen Chinese agronomists in training at CARAH

October 2016 – Signature of a convention between CARAH and the Wuxi County

Historic of the cooperation

Initiated in 1999 by the visit of Christian Ducattillon and François Serneels in Chongqing and of Gu Wy, Xie Ky and Che Xingbi in Ath, the cooperation between CARAH and China initially aimed to apply the CARAH warning system for potato late blight in China.

China is the world’s first producer of potato. This crop is the fourth more important in the country after rice, wheat and corn. However, as for Belgian farmers, local farmers are confronted every year to losses due to potato late blight. Thanks to a narrow collaboration, the CARAH model is nowadays used in almost every region of China where potato is cultivated in big quantities and allowed local farmers to increase their yield of an average 5T/Ha.

Since 2000, experts from CARAH regularly traveled to China, first in Chongqing and then to different regions of China in order to exchange potato crop techniques and know how. Local agronomists are trained each year to different techniques used in Belgium. Training courses were also organized at the experimental and educational farm of CARAH in Ath.

2016 is marked with a white stone because a cooperation agreement of five years was signed between CARAH and the Wuxi County (Chongqing province) in order to give a new impulse to years of fruitful collaboration. Thus a Sino Belgian engineering center for potato was created in Wuxi. This center will house two training classes on potato every year given partly by experts from CARAH. Moreover, the center includes a high quality mini-tuber production company. Every year, a training class will be organized at the CARAH experimental and educational farm in Ath, Belgium. The first one was organized successfully in December 2016.