COWI Belgium wins a New Project in China

COWI Consortium wins a new project in the field of Rural Development and Food Security: EU – China Young Farmers Programme.

The Overall Objective of the action is to improve EU-China cooperation on agriculture:

• Through improved uptake of modern and sustainable techniques and practices in farming, food transformation and rural development resulting from the know-how and experiences shared between the EU and China and capacity built among young farmers
• Through further dissemination of recommendations and good practices to practitioners and policy makers in China. Experiences with the young farmers' generation could play its role in that respect;
• By providing opportunities to establish closer links between agri-food businesses, national and regional authorities in Europe and future young professional working in the agricultural sector in China;
• For the EU MS farmers, the participation in the workshops and study visits in China will allow them to get to know the realities and best practices of the Chinese agricultural model. For the sector's professionals this will be important experience.

The Specific Objectives of the action will be to:

• Inform in an interactive and practice-oriented way young Chinese farmers and sector professionals of the modern and sustainable techniques and practices in farming, food transformation, quality and safety standards and rural development in the EU;
• Compare the EU know-how and best practices with the experiences of the Chinese farmers and the sector policy environment in China and possibly use in the EU experiences and knowhow acquired through the project;
• Build the relevant capacities among the participants;
• Identify good practices and disseminate this knowledge and experience to a wider audience in rural areas and policy makers. Identification of added value of certain EU farming practices, and of practical young farmer policies, by Chinese participants should be a source of inspiration for the Chinese authorities which are in the process of a major agricultural policy reform which might, in the future, have huge impacts on world agricultural markets, global food security and stability in China.